


Knowledge and the Powers

by tptigger



Category: Teen Wolf (TV), Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: A Wizard of Mars spoilers, Gen, M/M, Minor Ethan/Danny Mahealani, Nita Callahan - Freeform, Prada (Teen Wolf) - Freeform, Teen Wolf Season 3a, Tom Swale - Freeform, Tom and Nita are vital but not in it very much, telluric currents don't work like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-15 02:57:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11796978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptigger/pseuds/tptigger
Summary: Strange things keep happening in Beacon Hills, more than many of its residents can process. Danny was only tangentially involved until a strange app on his new phone gave him the opportunity to do some real wizardry.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time, someone posted a Teen Wolf story called "Ordeal" when I had Young Wizards on the brain. (I don't recall why.) This made me want to write a crossover, but the only non-Supernatural in the group at the time was Stiles, and he doesn't have the personality for wizardry. I asked Argentum-ls what she thought. Her immediate response was, "Use Danny." And I said, Oh, hell yes.  
> The first draft wrapped the week before the 3B finale aired. Editing, like the story, was a very long process. And many thanks to LS for the betas, any remaining mistakes are my own. (Thanks to CrossingsCon for making me realize I misplaced the accent mark in dai stihó)  
> This story is finished, and I will post two chapters a day until it wraps.  
> Note: Spoilers for Young Wizards through the end of A Wizard of Mars. Just in case you're reading along with Mark Reads.

Danny winced at the crack of displaced air that accompanied his arrival in a copse of trees just outside of the clearing. He squinted in the darkness. The eclipse might have been over, but the moonlight was barely enough to see by. What, or who had tripped his detection spell? Inwardly, he cursed himself for having never learned the real life equivalent of "Lumos." A figure that he assumed was Peter Hale was bent over a lumpy, writhing body. Danny took a stop closer, focusing and the body's face resolved into Ms. Blake. She lay at the foot of the tree stump; dark liquid that he strongly suspected was blood seeping from her neck.

"I am the Alpha!" Peter roared.

The what?

"I have always been the Alpha!"

Danny wanted to look in his phone. What the heck was the Alpha? Why was that important? What could an Alpha possibly be that it would be worth risking the lives of the entire city? Of course, that could be the Lone One's entire plan.

Peter turned, his eyes glowing an unnatural blue. And... was that fur on his face? "What..."

Danny looked him in the eye, chin up, shoulders square, sure his hands were shaking. "Fairest and fallen, greetings and defiance."

* * *

12 Episodes Earlier

It started with a box on Danny's bed. He couldn't believe it; his parents had actually gotten him an iPhone? He opened the box, looking for the instructions to transfer his number. The phone came out of the box backwards.

Facing him was a shiny silver plate with an apple on it. The logo was printed on, white, but it wasn't the Apple logo: there wasn't a bite out of it; it was smooth and round on both sides.

That was so weird. Had his parents bought him a cheap knockoff? Wouldn't it be illegal to have a logo so close to the Apple one?

Danny frowned. His parents were in IT; they wouldn't do anything so reckless. He took the phone to his computer, and set up a partition, then opened the phone as a disc in safe mode using the kernel.

Everything in the phone OS was on the up and up- according to one of the forums he found online the installation was mostly bog standard. It had all the standard OS files. Maybe something in the Apps? Compass, Contacts, Mail, Manual... Manual? Danny frowned. Shouldn't that have been called Help? No, wait there was a help file in settings; that wasn't it at all. It also was in a weird directory (he'd done a search using the file extension)and as far as Danny could tell, it was isolated from the rest of the phone operating system. There was no way whatever it was could possibly harm anything.

Danny disconnected the phone from the computer and turned it on, going through the normal set-up steps: passing on signing in with his Apple ID and the wifi connection for now-- he wanted to know what he was messing with for sure before he started giving this thing any of his passwords. He'd have to turn it off again to transfer his phone number, but he wanted to see what else was going on first. He scrolled past the factory installed apps to the strange one.

Danny blinked. Was this a joke? The app was called "So You Want to Be a Wizard?" He'd seen a book like that in the school library the previous semester.

~ ~ ~

Danny ran his hand along the bookshelf, watching the call numbers carefully. The book that he needed for chemistry had to be here _somewhere_. If he didn't have a zillion sources on this paper, all neatly annotated and cross-checked, Harris would give him a C just to mess with his GPA. His hand snagged on a book ajar from the others. The label said "HEARN" where the call number should have been, like it was from the fiction section.

Danny pulled the book from the shelf, staring at it dumbly. "I don't think this is shelved correctly." 

Jackson snagged the book from him, wrinkling his nose in concentration. "So You Want to Be a Wizard? That what you want to be when you grow up, Mahealani? I thought you were over your Harry Potter phase."

Danny stole the book back. "Shut up, Jackson."

"You going to check it out?" Jackson asked. "You want to know why your ex dumped you?"

"You're a jackass, Jackson." Danny found the chemistry book and grabbed it. He shoved the wizard book into Jackson's chest. "Here. If you're so determined to ruin your relationship with Lydia, maybe this will help."

Jackson rolled his eyes and threw the book on the reshelving cart at the end of the aisle as they headed to the checkout desk.

Danny glanced back, but then looked at Jackson, thought better of it, and kept walking.

~~~

Danny could have gone back to get the book without Jackson in tow, but school work had gotten crazy and he'd forgotten to look for it at the Beacon Hills Library over the summer. 

With Jackson in London, he didn't need to justify himself to anyone. And with the app on an iPhone--a weird iPhone, but still an iPhone--no one would know he was reading it. Although sometimes--a lot of the time--he wondered why he had listened to Jackson at all. He'd have to talk to Lydia about Jackson's powers of persuasion the next time that they had lunch.

Danny opened the app, wondering how his parents had known about the book and managed to have it pre-installed in a separate app. School didn't start for a week yet; if he was lucky he could finish it before he had to worry about homework. He flopped down on his stomach as he waited for it to load.

"WizPhone Manual App version 0.9 (final beta) Pre-Oath.  
"Purpose: To help a potential wizard make an informed decision to take the Oath. Normally, this would not be presented in a beta version, but previous attempts to offer you the Oath have not been successful and entropy in Beacon Hills has been exponentially increasing over the last several months. Urgent intervention is required and there are few wizards local to the area, most of whom simply do not answer the problems at hand."

Danny frowned. This was a weird app. It was a bit meta, but he almost wished it were true. (He also wanted to steal the code that had pulled his current location into the story.) It _felt_ true--Beacon Hills had certainly become more chaotic the last few months-- mountain lions at the dance, the LaCrosse game where Jackson had almost died. It also seemed oddly... accurate--Danny had seen a book several months before. What if this were all true? Could he have saved Jackson the experience of being mistaken for dead?

More likely, Danny was taking this way too seriously and needed to get out more in the wake of Jackson's departure. Still, he kept reading. School would start soon, he wouldn't have time for this once it did. 

* * *

Danny kissed his mother on the cheek when he came down to dinner. "Thanks for the new phone."

"You're welcome," she placed the last of the silverware on the table, "but I don't want to hear anything about new phones until you leave for college, this time. I don't know how the other kids in your school can afford to change phones so often, but it's a waste of money."

"Promise." Danny pulled glasses out of the cabinet. "Did you get it from the AT&T store?"

"They were out." His mom picked up potholders from next to the stove, pulling an aluminum foil covered casserole pan out of the oven. "It shipped straight from Apple. Why?"

"Just wondering." Danny smiled as the scent of tomatoes and garlic filled his nose. "There must've been a defect when printing the logo is all. There's no bite out of it."

His mother wrinkled her nose in confusion. "That's strange."

"I checked everything." Danny set the last glass at the edge of the knife at his sister's place. "The only thing weird about the OS it is a pre-installed app...."

His mother crossed her arms and glared at him. "Danny, you really don't want to get in trouble for hacking again, do you?"

Danny shifted from foot to foot. "No."

"So don't go reverse engineering your phone." Her eyes held his as if she were looking into his very soul.

"OK, Mom." Danny bowed his head. "I was just worried..."

"It came straight from the manufacturer." She patted his shoulder. "If you want to take it back and wait another six weeks..."

"That's OK," Danny said quickly. "It's probably a collector's item or something."

* * *

After dinner, Danny activated his phone, transferred his contacts, and then stared at them for a moment.

He touched Lydia's name, flopping onto the bed on his stomach.

"Danny? Is everything ok?" Lydia asked.

Danny blinked. "Yeah, Lyds, everything's fine. My folks got me an iPhone and, well, who else would I call first?"

"Oh," Lydia said. "That's... I sort of have a date."

"A date? You're going to have to give me the details." Danny sat up, leaning forward. "You want to meet up for brunch tomorrow?"

"I... uh, maybe lunch?"

Danny chuckled, wondering what poor soul Lydia had her hooks into this week. And how long this rebound phase of hers was going to last. "I understand. Give me a call when you get a chance ok?"

"Sure," Lydia said. "If nothing else, I'll see you in school."

"School," Danny said. A whole week? Really? "Right, OK. Talk later." He hung up the phone and flopped back on the bed.

Hagrid, Danny's cat, nosed his way into the crack in the door, climbed on his chest, and head-butted him.

Danny reached up and scratched Hagrid behind the ears. "At least I've still got you buddy. No one else seems to want to talk to me."

Hagrid's ears twitched, his eyes staring into Danny's.

"Yeah, I guess I should download Skype onto this thing in case Jackson deigns to call," Danny said. He put the phone down and reached to scratch under Hagrid's chin.

"Ro." Hagrid ducked his head. 

"What?"

The cat nosed the phone towards him. Weird.

"Right. Skype."

Hagrid huffed, hopped off Danny's lap and strode out of the door, his tail straight in the air.

"What's got your whiskers in a tangle?" He shrugged, picked up his phone and opened up the App Store.

* * *

Danny waved as Lydia approached the outdoor seating area of Casey's Cafe Sandwiches. Prada darted in front of her, and Lydia stumbled. "Prada, what's with you?" she snapped.

The little dog barked, pulling her towards the wooded area behind the shop that eventually led to the preserve.

"Prada, sit," Lydia said in a high pitched voice.

The dog barked again.

Lydia moved in front of her. "Prada!"

Prada dashed around. Lydia tried to stop her with a foot, but the little dog bit the back of her ankle.

"Prada!" Lydia picked her up. "What is with you?"

Danny grabbed a handful of napkins and brought them to Lydia. "Are you ok? It looks like it broke skin."

"Maybe this wasn't the best idea," Lydia frowned. The papillon was straining at her hands, barking and trying to get to the woods.

Danny frowned, wishing Prada could tell them what was so interesting about the woods.

"I know," Lydia said. "I'm sorry, it's just I think I'd better get this one home. I don't understand this!"

"Me neither," Danny said.

* * *

Danny got home, dumped his phone on the kitchen counter and stuck his head in the fridge.

"Danny? I thought you were getting lunch with Lydia?" his Mom asked.

Danny moved the leftover lasagna pan from the previous night, looking in the back. "Prada bit her and she had to go home."

"Bit her?"

"Yeah." Danny emerged from the fridge with leftover Shepherd's pie from the weekend and dumped it on a plate.

"That doesn't sound like Prada."

"I don't think I'd have believed it if I didn't see it." Danny sighed, starting the microwave.

His mom frowned at him. "Lydia's been pretty busy, hasn't she?"

"Yeah. After the attack she just hasn't been herself," Danny said. "I think she's getting better, though."

"Have you heard from Jackson?"

"An email. London is very big and very old and the dorm food sucks."

"Are you okay?" his mom asked.

"Yeah, fine, why?" Danny asked.

"No reason."

There was a gentle thump as Hagrid hopped onto the table with Danny's phone in his mouth.

"What the hell, Hagrid?" Danny confiscated his phone, relieved that Hagrid let it go willingly. "Why are you messing with my phone and why are on the table?" Danny set his phone down and then picked up Hagrid.

Hagrid yowled indignantly as Danny placed him on the floor.

"What is your problem?" Danny asked.

Hagrid just glared him in the eyes, as if waiting for Danny to shut up so he could say something.

The microwave beeped and Danny went to get his lunch.

* * * 

Danny picked up his backpack from the passenger seat, shouldered it, grabbed his trumpet case and then locked his car, and then turned towards the school in time to see Lydia getting out of the passenger seat of Allison's car.

"Hey, Lydia!" he called, jogging over to them to greet her. He stopped short as he realized there was an ace bandage wrapped around Lydia's foot. "My G-d, did Prada get you that badly? How's your foot?"

Lydia blinked at him. "My foot? Why... It's not that bad, the bite just keeps hitting my shoes wrong." She shrugged.

"Is it hurting?" Danny asked. "Or did you and Allison go for breakfast?"

"Oh. Yeah, a deer decided to commit suicide by jumping through my windshield last night," Lydia said.

Danny blinked. "How fast were you going?"

"I was stopped. It just ran towards us into the windshield."

Danny frowned. "What would make a deer do that?"

Lydia tilted her head and frowned at him. "If I knew that, don't you think I would've stopped it?"

"Good point." Danny said.

The first bell rang and they started towards the school.

"Where are you headed?" Allison asked.

"Band. What about you?"

"English," Lydia said. "Hopefully this new teacher is decent."

"Good luck," Danny said. "I have her second period. See you."

He went up the stairs towards the band room while the girls went down the corridor towards their English class.

* * *

The first day of school started out normally, but quickly took a weird turn. Danny settled in with his trumpet, trying to ignore the side eyes he was getting from some of the freshman. They would eventually figure out that everyone was in band together, but the girl who had taken up a seat two chairs away kept glancing over, and then looking away as soon as Danny caught her looking. She tapped a nervous rhythm on the valves of her own trumpet, staring straight ahead at the empty music stand.

"Don't worry, Mr. S wouldn't have let you in the marching band if he didn't think you were ready," Danny said.

She flashed him a smile, showing off the braces under her lips, then stopped again, probably remembering that they were still there. She went back to staring straight ahead.

Well, he'd tried, right?

"I'm Cassie," she said quietly, eyes still on the empty blackboard. "I'm a Freshman."

"Danny, a junior," he said.

Mr. Stephanopolis walked in as the bell rang, a stack of music in his hands. "OK, you all had me for band last year, whether it was in Junior High or this very room, you know the rules. Since, as usual, the bulk of our extracurricular budget has gone to the sports teams, we will be starting with Firebird by Stravinsky. You will be able to play for football games or skating competitions, though we could all use fewer..."

A crash came from the windows. Danny noticed Cassie jolt as he turned just in time to see a black and red mass of feathers slide down the glass, leaving a red streak in its wake. A second black bird-- was it a crow? Weren't crows smaller than that? Maybe it was a raven--careened into the glass, cracking it. More birds followed, causing the windows to start cracking. Danny got up and glanced at Cassie, who was staring at the window with her mouth hanging open.

Danny grabbed Cassie by the shoulders. "Come on."

He guided her up two steps, sheltering them behind the piano as shards of broken glass rained into the room.

"Didn't I see this in an episode of Supernatural?" she muttered.

Birds streamed into the classroom, careening around the ceiling, some flapping in frantic circles while others crashed into the whiteboard.

Cassie whimpered as dead birds started piling up on Mr. Stephanopolis' desk. Danny stared. What was causing this? 

Cassie took shelter under the piano, her knees drawn into her chest.

"We're okay," Danny said, hoping she couldn't tell that he didn't believe what he was saying. "Just hang tight."

Cassie didn't reply, just held tight to something under her shirt. 

Danny stared at the dead birds. This was very strange. Why were they all rushing into the school like this? And then dropping dead. What was the point? You had scared students and dead birds. Chaos, and if things went very poorly maybe a case of salmonella. Why would anyone do this? How could anyone do this? Why did he think....

He'd been reading too much of that "So You Want to be a Wizard" book/app/whatever. He shook his head at the thought as if to clear it--the rational part of his brain was insisting that he was probably taking the app much too seriously, but the thought that he could have prevented this stayed with him like an earworm off of top 40 radio in syncopation to the birds dropping on Mr. Stephanopolis' desk.

If Danny _could_ do something, that meant he _should_ didn't it?

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

Danny glanced at his backpack, the full weight of which was a little daunting: he was a junior now, and it felt like his textbooks each weighed twice as much as last year, and his teachers had assigned twice as much work to go with it. His school work could wait a little bit. What he needed to do was important too. School couldn't teach him everything he needed to know; the last few months had been proof enough of that. He parked the car and left his backpack sitting on the passenger seat.

A few minutes later, he was hiking in the preserve, off the trails, letting his feet take him... he wasn't sure where.

He found a clearing with an old tree stump. It was broad, with gnarled roots, and he suspected it would have more than a hundred rings if he cared to count them. There were mushrooms growing near it, but not on it, as if they were somehow afraid of it. Danny blinked again. He was having some very odd thoughts today.

He didn't know how he knew it, but this was the place. He sat on the stump, pulling out his phone and firing up the app. A dialogue box popped up, as if the phone or the app could read his mind. Or maybe the birds in music had simply clinched the urgency of the situation for the Powers too. If it was real--but if it wasn't real, then what was he doing? 

Danny frowned at himself. Belief was important for wizardry. Belief and truth: the introductory chapters unequivocally stated that it was dangerous to lie in the Speech. As hard as it was, as much as common sense told him otherwise, he knew everything he'd been reading the last several days to be true. He clicked the yes button.

A new window opened, with instructions to read the words aloud.

Danny took a deep breath, nervous as if reading in class, even though he hadn't seen anyone else and there was no one around to hear him.

"In Life's name and for Life's sake..."

The world went silent. Not the quiet of the forest, with the background of the leaves rustling and birds chirping. Deathly quiet, as if his voice were the only sound. It felt weird, like the trees, the animals, even the tree stump that Danny was sitting on, were leaning in to hear.

"...I assert that I will employ the Art which is Its gift in Life's service alone, rejecting all other usages."

A squirrel came down from one of the trees inching closer, silent as a moth. Danny looked up, wondering what was happening, but it sat down, looking at him curiously.

He continued. "I will guard growth and ease pain. I will fight to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way; nor will I change any creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are threatened or threaten another. To these ends, in the practice of my Art, I will ever put aside fear for courage, and death for life..." his throat caught, but he pressed on, "when it is right to do so- looking always toward the Heart of Time where all our sundered times are one, and all our myriad worlds lie whole, in That from Which they preceded."

The squirrel chattered excitedly, and Danny almost felt like it had said "well done." Except the squirrel shouldn't have understood a word of what he was saying. Noise returned, and the quiet background of the forest glen returned, as if the white noise had never left.

"Ordeal has commenced," the app told him.

Danny looked around cautiously; he knew the app--his Wizard's manual, he realized-- was as real as anything he'd learned in school that day.

"What's an Ordeal?" he asked.

"You will have to face the Power that invented death."

"Why me?" he blurted.

"There is a problem only you can solve," the app replied.

A... OK. If he was buying wizardry, he would play along with that for a minute or five. He looked carefully, but didn't see or hear anything out of order. He looked at the app, which now resembled an ebook and tapped on the table of contents.

"iOS7 Wizard Manual version 0.9. Full version. Relevant chapters are bolded in the table of contents."

Danny clicked the OK button next to the pop up message, and was presented with a list. Most of it was in bold. He would need spend some quality time with the index he suspected--if he was going to get to the bottom of the birds in music, he was going to have to get caught up and FAST. He really should've known that being a wizard would be more like Night Hogwarts--sans Quidditch--than an action adventure fantasy TV show.

He pocketed his phone and headed back to the car. He was nearly to the parking area when he saw a man with dirty blond hair and cold eyes approaching.

"Hi," Danny said, wondering if he should have greeted the main with "Dai stihó," which the manual said was a traditional greeting amongst wizards, instead.

The man stalked on, lost in his own thoughts, or so intent on his destination that he hadn't noticed Danny. A powerful shiver ran down Danny's spine, though he wasn't sure why. It wasn't cold yet; the sun was still up.

Danny shrugged it off, pulling on his Beacon Hills LaCrosse hoodie when he reached the car.

* * *

When his homework was finally finished later that evening, Danny flopped face down on his bed, opening the Manual. He skipped the table of contents, instead going right to the index, looking for information on what might cause birds to go kamikaze like that.

It was slow going; he kept having to go back and forth to the glossary, or other chapters to get enough background information to understand what he was reading about.

"Why do you smell like dead birds?"

Danny startled, looking around. The voice was familiar, but he couldn't place it. At first glance, no one was in his room besides his cat Hagrid, who jumped on the bed, sniffing him cautiously.

"Hey, boy," Danny said, scratching the cat behind the ears. "Either there's someone hiding in the closet or I think I'm hearing things."

Hagrid gave Danny his best "silly human" look. "Dai stihó, cousin."

Danny leaned over the bed, checking underneath it; he'd always been convinced there was a monster under it.

"You should look at me when I'm talking to you."

Just like that, the familiarity of the voice clicked into place. It was just that it was a voice that never spoke in a way he could understand before. "Hagrid?"

"The one and only. Did you really have to name me after a giant?"

"I was ten!" Danny said, for a moment setting aside that he was talking to his cat.

"Yer a wizard, Danny." His cat was now quoting _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_ at him. He'd signed up for weird when he took the oath, but this?

"I take it that's revenge for the name?" Danny asked.

Hagrid snorted.

"Dai stihó," Danny said, remembering, belatedly, to return the greeting as described in the manual, which was with several choice things about manners between wizards. "Forgive my manners, cousin. It hadn't occurred to me that you could talk."

"Maybe if you'd started with the basics instead of going to the advanced stuff." Hagrid eyed Danny's phone critically. "Does this have something to do with the dead birds I smell?"

Danny explained what had happened in class.

Hagrid brushed up against Danny's shoulder with his cheeks. "Let's get rid of those bird smells; things are freaky enough around here."

"Like what?" Danny asked. "Is this why you pushed my phone off the counter the other day?"

"I was trying to get your attention. Something big and bad is going on. It's on the wind. Trouble is coming, or possibly already here. I'm glad you've picked up on the universe's sense of urgency, but you're going to need to start more broadly with your research, at least until you've mastered the basics." Hagrid cocked his head at the screen. "Changing the molecular structure of matter is fun, but not necessarily what's needed here." 

"How come I can understand you now?" Danny asked, ignoring Hagrid's comments. "You've never spoken English before."

"I'm not now," Hagrid replied. "We're both using the Speech; you'll need it for what you're about to do. You should start your research there."

"How can I speak it if I don't know it? And how come you know so much?"

"I'm a wizard too. Really, after you finish reading up on the Speech, you should read the chapter on non-human wizards. You'll learn that all living things understand that Speech and that humans aren't the only species on Earth that produce wizards."

"Right," Danny said. He frowned. "Will I have enough time to do all this research before the Lone Power shows up? I took the Oath this afternoon, that means I'm on Ordeal now, right?"

"Every Ordeal is different," Hagrid said. "Remember that the more you know, the more you'll have to work with. As for timing, you were offered the Oath later than a lot of your species; that means you're required to solve a more complicated problem. The Powers will want you to get as much information as you can before you have to face it."

Danny cursed himself for listening to Jackson about the book. He could've had all summer for research!

"Wizardry is a lot like math: you can't do multiplication before you know how to add. It may be that this problem requires higher math skills, or just critical thinking skills. Younger wizards have more power and not a lot of finesse; when older wizards are offered the Oath, they sometimes have longer lag times. Best if you get to it. I could use a nap." Hagrid yawned, and curled up next to Danny.

Apparently, being a cat wizard didn't exempt Hagrid from needing a lot of sleep.

* * *

Danny slid into an empty seat next to Lydia in math. "Yesterday was crazy, huh?"

"Yeah," Lydia said absently. She unclipped her binder and put in several pages with writing on it, then several fresh new sheets.

"Did you figure out what kind of birds those were?" Danny asked.

"No." Lydia uncapped her pen.

Danny wasn't sure whether to gape or take Lydia's temperature.

"What?" Lydia asked, finally turning to look at him.

Danny realized he'd been staring. "I'm surprised you don't know is all."

"I had other things to worry about last night," Lydia said.

Great. Did Lydia really have to get distracted by a boy when Danny's life was getting so weird? "Do other things have a name?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Lydia poked Danny's bicep with the back end of her pen.

The bell rang.

* * *

"Ravens." Stiles sat down on the locker room bench next to Danny at the start of Cross Country practice.

"Sorry, what?" Danny asked.

"Lydia said you asked her what kind of birds dive bombed the school yesterday. I'd looked it up. They were ravens."

"Thanks," Danny said; he hoped he didn't sound too flummoxed, but what was Lydia doing talking to Stiles?

What else had he missed over the summer? Besides Scott McCall suddenly caring about school. That at least was easy to explain: he'd been ineligible for games last year, that would certainly be enough to motivate him to study.

Stiles didn't react to anything else; he just got up, headed for his locker and started chatting with McCall.

That was when the new guys walked in. They were twins, pretty much identical--though one was a little taller, and both smoking hot. Danny wasn't sure how he was keeping his mouth closed. They split up, eyes going between locker slips and the lockers themselves. One found his locker, spun the lock, and dug out gym clothes. He stripped off his shirt.

Danny didn't know who these guys were or where they came from, but he was certainly enjoying the view--at least until the twin he was ogling looked around. Their eyes locked, and the boy smirked.

Danny blushed and looked away, though the smirk had set off his gaydar. He was about 80% sure the twin was flirting with him.

McCall slapped Danny on the back. "It's cool, man, Jackson's probably out tearing up the London night scene as we speak."

Jackson was probably in his bed in the boarding school dorms brooding about the curfew, but it was still weird that McCall even knew he was in London. Even weirder than Lydia sending Stiles to deliver information. Danny filed "weird classmate behavior" under "maybe I'm being paranoid waiting for my Ordeal" and hurriedly got ready for Coach's marathon forced run that passed for Cross Country training.

When he got to the field, McCall and Stiles both tossed him encouraging grins. Danny was starting to wonder if he should find out all the details about this strange phenomenon of Lydia and Stiles talking--especially if they were talking about him.

Coach emerged from the school and Danny started catching up on his stretches.

* * *

"Did you know him?" one of the twins asked as they walked back to school after finding the dead body.

"No," Danny said. "It's just unsettling you know?"

Death was a part of life, but there was only one Power that would want to take it early like that. Danny was going to look up the garroting-and-posing-of-the-body-while-tied-to-a-tree-thing in the Manual. Maybe it would give him some clues as to what was going on.

"Yeah," the twin said, though Danny wasn't exactly convinced. "I'm Ethan."

"Danny."

"So are you here for Cross Country or are you on the LaCrosse team?

"LaCrosse team. I'm the goalie."

"Cool," Ethan said. "I may go out for the team next semester."

"What position do you play?"

"Whatever's open."

Danny felt eyes watching him and turned around. McCall and Stilinski were staring, brows furrowed. Lahey and Boyd were walking towards them, and they were glaring daggers at both of the twins, but seemed to be concentrating on Ethan.

Danny shot a look at them. Boyd and Lahey scowled, and McCall and Stilinski started looking anywhere else.

Danny didn't know Boyd too well, but Lahey usually spent practice trying not to be noticed. Stiles and McCall might have been less subtle but--it almost seemed like they were worried.

Danny wondered if Jackson had thrown some kind of co-captain's honor thing at McCall to keep an eye on him. Which would also explain Stiles, but Boyd and Lahey? He'd have to e-mail Jackson about it. And the Stiles and Lydia thing.

Something really odd was going on there, and Danny hoped Jackson might be able to shed some light on some of it.

* * *

The next day was Saturday. Danny got up early, wanting to get his bit of Errantry done before it got too hot to be hiking out in the preserve. He went back to the tree stump where he had taken the oath; his instincts kept telling him that this was an important, powerful place. He set out all his materials, including some breadcrumbs.

Danny looked at the spell again. Really? This led to several questions about Norse mythology. And why did Odin's Ravens have names in the Speech anyway? He sighed, feeling slightly silly, and read out loud. "I wish to speak to the Children of Munnin, Corvus corax, to consult with them about happenings in their world. The bread is a gift to help them find their way and thank them for their assistance."

Danny finished the spell, as all spells in the Manual finished, with a Wizard's knot.

Three ravens alighted on the tree stump, eating the bread crumbs hungrily.

"I am on Errantry and I greet you," Danny said in the Speech. He brought his hands up, then thought better of it. He shoved them into his pockets instead.

"Oh, no, we're not helping with any more errantry!" one of the ravens exclaimed. It took off.

A second snatched a particularly large breadcrumb and then also took to the sky.

The third eyed Danny warily.

Danny gulped. "I'm sorry for the attractant spell, I mean you no harm. I just want to talk."

"The last one said that." The raven scratched at the tree stump, poking a pile of crumbs with its beak.

Last one? Danny wasn't the only one talking to ravens? What on Earth had he gotten himself into? "What last one?"

"Came offering food." The raven poked another bread crumb, and Danny realized it hadn't actually eaten anything. "I should have pecked its eyes out."

Danny took a deep breath, resisting the urge to turn and run. He needed to do this. "I... why?"

"I knew it was trouble. Said it just wanted some chaos." The raven hopped over a crack in the tree stump, eying a thin layer of bread covering the space between tree rings. "Most of our unkindness goes to help and they never came back."

"That su-" Danny stopped, mid-word, unsure how the idiom would translate into the Speech, or what effect it might have. He needed to remember to choose his words carefully. "I'm very sorry to hear that. It must be hard for you."

The bird tilted its head, its visible eye locking with Danny's own. "Just what sort of Errantry are you on?"

"The rest of your unkindness flew into my school. I saw them some of them dive in and then die; it's not right." Danny paused, massaging the bridge of his nose. "I'm trying to find out why they would do such a thing, and if there's anything I can do to help."

"You? What can you do?" the bird replied.

Danny stood up straight, squaring his shoulders. "I'm a wizard."

"That won't matter to the last one. Or the trickster. Entropy is their friend."

"That doesn't sound good." Danny shoved his hands in his pockets again. More than one? What had he gotten himself into?

The bird fluttered its wings in indignation. "An understatement."

Danny frowned. "What can you tell me about them?"

"Why should I?" The raven poked at another bread crumb.

"I'd say I fed you, but you don't seem particularly hungry." Danny shrugged.

The bird looked up at him, making eye contact.

Danny squirmed at the regard.

"The last one smells of the woods and the school and of anger. The trickster smells of dog and fire." The raven leaned down and picked up bread crumb, wolfing it down.

"Male? Female? Tall? Short?" Danny crossed his arms.

The raven fluttered to the other side of the tree stump, pecking at some food stuck in a crack.

Danny frowned. "Well?"

The raven freed the crumb and swallowed it while staring at Danny with its right eye. It then switched its gaze to the left eye. "Could you pick me out from my compatriots who left a few minutes ago?"

Danny's stomach twisted. Well, that was embarrassing. Why was there no such thing as a white lie in the Speech? "No," Danny said, a blush creeping into his cheeks. "I'm sorry."

"It's much the same. We are all better at identifying members of our own species," the raven said.

"True," Danny said. Two bad ones. "Were they together?"

"Pardon?"

"Did they both ask the rest of the unkindness to fly into the classroom?"

"No. Just the last one."

So not the person who smelled like a dog, then. Well, that was something at least.

"Thank you," Danny said.

"You can thank me by getting rid of them."

"I'll see what I can do," Danny said.

"You might help the guardians.'

"I'm sorry, what?"

"There are those who protect this place. I... I'm not sure how many; it changes, I think, and I've never gotten a good smell, but they've stopped other friends of entropy before."

So Danny might have help--not wizards, and he wasn't really sure how much assistance he was allowed on Ordeal, but based on what the manual said about Wizard Ordeals, he would take any help he could get.

"Good luck." The raven stretched out its wings, fluttered them, and took flight.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

Lydia was sitting with Stilinski and McCall at lunch. Well, and Allison, which made more sense. Even stranger, Lahey and Boyd had joined them instead of sitting on their own, and they were all joined by the new girl. Cora? He wasn't sure.

They all seemed to be on pins and needles and giving him nervous looks. Danny didn't feel welcome lately--it was as if they'd formed some kind of secret club that he hadn't been permitted to join. He didn't mind, per se, but it was weird not sitting with Lydia. The rest of the LaCrosse team was sitting with various other friends, and Danny didn't really feel welcome with them either. It as almost like they were falling apart without Jackson's leadership. Off the field at least; cross country was going reasonably well.

Danny shrugged it off, found a quiet table in the corner, pulled out his phone, and opened a chapter on the Speech, ignoring everything around him. A crash of plastic jolted him out of his rumination on the difference between the Pre-Enactive and Post-Enactive forms of the Speech.

"You're looking at that phone like it's homework."

Danny looked up to see Ethan-- or possibly his brother-- staring at him from a seat across the table. The clatter he'd heard was Ethan's lunch tray.

Danny raised an eyebrow at him. "You're missing someone."

"As usual, Aiden's trying to get in with the cool kids." Ethan rolled his eyes. "And as usual, failing miserably."

Danny glanced up to see Aiden sulking away from McCall's table. He frowned. Lydia might still be Queen Bee of Beacon Hills, but the rest of that table was hardly the popular kids.

Ethan glanced over his shoulder, following Danny's gaze. "You know Aiden is the straight one, right?"

"Yeah, he's just barking up the wrong tree; Lydia's on the rebound," Danny said.

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"She was dating my best friend until his parents sent him to school in London."

"This Jackson guy everyone's talking about?" Ethan asked.

"You've heard people mentioning him?" Danny asked, incredibly. "No one talks about him anymore; it's like he was never here."

"Weird rumors about him dying at the LaCrosse championships? Or almost dying?" Ethan said.

"It's kind of a long story. Longer than what's left of lunch."

"How about you tell me over dinner?" Ethan asked, hopefully.

"My parents are really weird about dates; you'll have to come pick me up so they can meet you."

"So Friday night? Around six?"

"Sure, sounds good," Danny said. He would just have to hope that all the research he'd been doing wouldn't culminate in his Ordeal on that day.

Ethan smiled. "Great."

* * *

Danny had tried very hard to figure out what was going on, but the more he read, the less he understood. Going back to the front of the book (where Hagrid had repeatedly insisted that he should _start_ ), he'd found a group of preliminary exercises. The very first, lesson one, was to describe something. The essence of wizardry was to describe things, then convince them to change--naming them in the Speech would make them listen; changing that description in the Speech would get them to change.

Danny decided the best place was his favorite clearing in the woods. He wasn't sure why he felt so drawn to this place, but he was. One thing the Manual stressed at all levels was to always trust your instincts. So he did.

Instead of sitting on the stump, Danny settled into the shade of the tree, breathing deep. He opened the Manual in his phone again, looking over the instructions.

"To change something, you must first describe it. To describe something, you must first see it. Hold still in one place long enough to see something."

It was a little new age-y for Danny's taste, but the Hermione approach of doing all the research had only led him to be more confused. So perhaps a hands on, if a little strange, approach was in order. After all, it was magic. (It occurred to him that maybe Reading All the Things was a little too Umbridge. It had also occurred to him that Harry Potter was not real life, and this might in fact be his problem.)

Danny looked around, not sure what to focus on. The tree stump was... well, a tree stump. He couldn't quite count the rings from where he sat, but there was a crack in the middle of the top, and the roots were _huge_. They were gnarled, winding like a lazy river from the middle of what was left of the trunk into the ground, with big spaces in between. Perhaps there had once been rocks there, or baby trees, or some other obstacle that had kept the great tree that was now this stump from growing straight into the ground to seek water. It was ancient, Danny had gotten to 100 before he'd lost count of the rings (he could walk over and count, but he was supposed to stay in one place). He looked at the negative space, wondering if it was a rock, or some animal's house, another tree, or.... That was weird. There wasn't tree trunk there; it was some kind of hollow. Inside the hollow, something was glowing.

Danny stood slowly, carefully, afraid he'd put himself into some kind of wizarding trance that he would jolt himself out of if he moved too quickly. He approached the glow, astounded when he realized that it was coming from _under_ the tree. A little more poking around, since the light didn't seem to be fading, revealed what used to be stairs. There were some missing, others seemed sound. It probably wasn't the smartest thing he ever did, but Danny cautiously descended the steps and entered a cave that looked almost like it might have been a root cellar. Some of the roots were rotting, and it didn't feel like the most stable thing ever, but it looked like it would hold. In the middle of the cave was a knot of light that glowed. It radiated power. Danny's first instinct was to back away and not to touch it, but also that it was exceedingly important. He needed to know what it was before he even thought about messing with it. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and snapped a picture. The picture popped up in the photo app, and the strange knot of light was nowhere to be seen. He opened the manual, looking for a record function, but there wasn't one. There was a note function where you could write on the page with your finger though, so he quickly sketched it. Once done, he put the phone back into his pocket, and shivered, despite the warm fall afternoon.

That instinct of his was telling him to get out of there. So he did.

* * *

Friday after school, Danny decided to dedicate his afternoon to wizardly research. He was getting nowhere with discovering what the ball of light was (and Hagrid had been no help). Finally, with half an hour left until he needed to get ready for his date with Ethan, he went into the help menu and discovered wizarding forums. He registered, and posted the sketch along with a written description, in English, for fear that writing it in the Speech might affect the real thing. He then hopped in the shower to get ready.

* * *

Ethan rang the bell at exactly 6 PM. Danny answered.

"Danny, bring your date into the kitchen," his mother called.

"Ready?"

"Don't worry, I give good parent," Ethan said, winking at Danny. They walked down the hallway, when Ethan just about tripped.

"Hagrid, watch where you're going," Danny said, slipping into the Speech and hoping that Ethan didn't notice.

"Don't go anywhere with him; he smells like a dog."

"Do you have a dog or something?" Danny asked.

"No," Ethan said, leaning down and offering Hagrid his hand to sniff. "Hi there, guy, I'm sorry I wasn't looking."

Hagrid arched his back and hissed. "Not that he smells of a dog, he smells like one. It's _his_ scent."

The hairs on the back of Danny's neck stood on end, thinking about what the raven had told him about the people who'd caused his unkindness to bombard the school. Was Ethan one of them?

He'd been expecting to take a break from this whole mess, not to interrogate his date. Was being a wizard always going to be like this? Danny reminded himself that while the bird hadn't liked the person who smelled of dog (was a dog? Like a dog?) they had also been pretty sure that they weren't responsible for the birds in band. He also realized he'd never asked the raven's name. As a wizard, he was a bit of a fail boat.

"Are you okay?" Ethan asked.

"Excuse me, I'm going to dump grumpy cat here in the bedroom so he doesn't do something we'll all regret." Danny scooped Hagrid up.

"Put me down, you annoying human!"

Danny didn't say anything until he was in his room with the door shut, dumping Hagrid on the bed.

The cat growled. "You understand me now, there's no reason for this." Hagrid arched his back and hissed for good measure.

"Except that if other people heard me holding a conversation with you they'd lock me up in the nearest asylum."

"Please don't go anywhere with that one. He smells like dog; he's not what he says he is."

"The raven said that whoever put them up to flying into the classroom smelled like dog. Well, one of the bad people, I don't think... it's confusing. Thanks for the warning, but I have to find out what's going on. I'll be careful."

Hagrid arched his back and hissed again.

"Behave." Danny pointed a finger in warning at the cat for emphasis.

Hagrid curled up and started licking his hind leg.

Cats!

Danny closed the door to his room behind him and could hear laughter coming from the kitchen. He jogged from the bedroom to find his mom nearly doubled over with laughter and Ethan throwing her an extremely charming smile.

Damn, why did he have to be involved in this?

Ethan turned to Danny, eyes narrowing. "Are you sure you're OK?"

"Yeah," Danny said. "I'm just not used to Hagrid acting like that. He's usually really friendly."

"Remember that time he pinned..."

"Mom," Danny interrupted before she could bring up the subject of his ex. "I think he just smelled something he didn't like."

Was it lying to say something you knew as something you thought? Wizards tried not to lie; would this count? Did this matter? He had so much to learn!

"You ready?" Ethan asked. "Or do you want to take the cat to the vet or something?"

"For one minute of odd behavior? No, I'm sure he's fine. I'm just a little thrown is all."

Ethan shrugged. "If you say so."

"Let's go." Danny glanced at his mother, who just waved them on.

They walked out the front door, and shut it behind them.

"So I pass?" Ethan asked as he got out his keys.

"I'm pretty sure they just screen my dates so they can screen my sister's dates," Danny said. "I'm not sure whether I should claim they're being sexist or just ask to sit in when they meet my sister's dates."

Ethan smiled. "When I first came out, Aiden wanted to do that with my dates. When I suggested that then I'd have to do the same for his he dropped the matter like a hot potato. Still, of all the ways he could've reacted..." Ethan trailed off as he unlocked the car.

"True enough." Danny climbed into the passenger seat and closing the door behind him. "Nice car." He buckled his seatbelt.

"It's my guardian's." Ethan buckled his seat belt, and played with the mirrors. "I still can't believe he let me take it; usually he won't let me drive it."

"Your guardian?" Danny asked.

"Yeah." Ethan started the car.

"So you don't live with your parents?"

"Nope."

"Too heavy a topic for a first date?" Danny asked.

"Too heavy a topic for any date."

Danny was burning with curiosity: what had happened to Ethan's parents? Had they reacted badly to his coming out or... for now, though, he needed to respect that Ethan didn't want to talk about it. Unless he smelled like a dog because he was literally raised by wolves or something. (He couldn't help but wonder if Ethan's guardian was the one upsetting the birds.)

"So your guardian? Really strict?"

"He has his moments," Ethan said.

"Does he think you're out with a girl?" Danny asked. He didn't want to pick at a sore spot, really, but... there might be something here. If he could just figure out how to approach it. Or if Ethan would open up about _something_.

"He knows I'm out with Danny, my teammate from the Cross Country team. Can we talk about something else? Anything else?"

There was an awkward pause.

"So where do you want to eat?" Ethan pulled into one of the cheaper downtown Beacon Hills parking lots.

"You mean you didn't choose?" Danny asked. "Maybe you should've asked before heading anywhere. I know some cool places in Blue Bay Harbor."

"Deucalion would kill me if I took his car out of town."

Danny blinked. "It's like, 15 miles away."

"He's kind of..." Ethan put the car in park and shrugged helplessly, his eyes wide.

Danny decided a change of subject was in order. "I get the idea. What kind of food do you like?"

"Whatever kind means not getting glared at if we decide we want to hold hands? I'm good with your favorite; I'll eat anything."

"You're planning on holding my hand?"

Ethan looked down at his seat belt, taking a minute to undo it. His cheeks had the slightest hint of pink.

"I know a place. Follow me." Danny got out of the car. "What kind of name is Deucalion?"

"Old family name," Ethan said. "Goes back generations."

"Your family?" Danny asked as he led Ethan out of the garage. It was weird that Ethan had referred to the guy as his guardian instead of as his uncle or whatever.

"We're... not related by blood," Ethan said. "It's really complicated, and it's not something I'd like to talk about."

"Sorry," Danny said, realizing he'd been pushing too hard. "We're here."

Ethan looked up, taking in the old fashioned soda fountain place that Danny had stopped them in front of. "Life is unpredictable; eat dessert first?"

"Their burgers are good."

Ethan held open the door. "Lead on, MacDuff."

Danny decided correcting him would be pushing it.

* * *

"How long have you been in Beacon hills?" Danny asked a few minutes later when they were settled in a cozy booth in the back and the waitress had taken their order.

"Since the end of June. Deucalion was here longer, but we needed to finish out the school year at our old school."

Something about that response seemed too smooth to Danny's ear. "Did you like your old school?"

"I was glad to get out of there," Ethan said, quickly.

Danny realized he'd pushed as far as he could without pushing Ethan away. And since he wasn't 100% sure that Ethan was involved in anything, and, well, if he wasn't? Danny was really drawn to the guy.

He just hoped it was for the reasons he thought it was.

"So what do you do for fun?" Danny asked, figuring a change of subject was in order.

Ethan's sharp exhale told Danny that change was probably overdue.

"Sports. Trounce Aiden in Call of Duty. You know, the usual."

Danny smiled. "Maybe you can help me trounce Jackson and his new roommate sometime."

* * *

Danny logged back into the wizard forums as soon as he got home.

There was a response from Juanita Callahan. (Danny wondered if that was what she went by: his post was listed as "Daniel.")

"Looks like a kernel. I'm sending this link to Earth's seniors. Have you been practicing with kernels at all?"

There was a second message, this one from Tom Swale, time stamped a few minutes later. "It's highly unusual for a probationary wizard to be able to see kernels. Please contact me ASAP. I'm in the book. Please do not attempt any intervention without consulting me first."

Danny pulled up Tom Swale's listing, frowning when he saw that his address was on the East Coast. It was nearly midnight in the Eastern Time Zone. There was a messaging function in the manual. Danny pulled it up.

"Just got home. I haven't done anything with the kernel but draw it. I have no idea what I'm facing yet. I won't do anything without speaking to you, but don't want to wake you up. When's a good time?"

His phone rang a minute later.

"Hello."

"Dai stihó. Is this Daniel Mahealani?"

"Dai." Danny shifted uncomfortably. Was this guy his boss? What was a Senior? He had to quit skipping around in the book. "Um, Mr. Swale?"

"Tom," said the man on the other end of the line. "We're not that formal with other wizards."

"Danny," he said. "I can't figure out how to change it on the forums."

"You'll get those privileges when you turn 21. Long story."

"Okay."

"So why don't you tell me what you've got going on?"

Danny tried to fill him in as concisely as possible, but suspected he was turning it into a muddled mess.

"Okay, take a deep breath. Whatever's going on, Danny, it's complex. And you won't get those three months back by trying to cut corners. Stick with the back to basics approach. Nita offered to talk to you about kernels, and I'm going to report up about getting you access to the practice universes, but I'm not sure how that's going to work out. It's much more advanced wizardry than what's usually required of a probationary wizard, but usually probationary wizards can't _see_ them the first time out either."

"Teaching the Patronus charm to a third year?" Danny asked.

Tom sighed. "More like teaching Avada Kedavra to a first year."

This guy had read.... "If I have to use an unforgivable, I'm out," Danny blurted. He flushed, wishing he'd thought that through. Given the energy already wasted on him, giving up his wizardry would be a bad thing.

"Good."

Or not.

"So now what?"

"You get some rest, and keep up with your preliminary exercises. Send Nita a message in the morning; she can help you with the kernels basics: you may not have to manipulate one, but if you're seeing one this early, the sooner you start learning, the better."

"I've been sorted into Ravenclaw," Danny mused.

"We're all Ravenclaws here," Tom said. "Just stick to it, Danny; it'll be fine. Good night."

"Good night," Danny said. He hung up the phone, took one look at the app, then shrugged it off and started getting ready for bed.

* * *

Danny woke early the next morning and couldn't get back to sleep. He poured a bowl of cereal and went back to the start of the manual, reading through the next exercise.

His phone pinged, popping up a notification:  
"This is Nita Callahan. Are you up for a consult?"

"To talk about kernels?" he typed back. "I can leave Beacon Hills in half an hour. Where are you? How long a drive?"

"Long Island, NY. I can transit to spec. Just let me know when you're ready."

"Give me half an hour to make myself presentable."

"Okay. I'll look for your message then."

* * *

Half an hour later, Danny stood in the backyard, unsure what to expect.

There was a crack of displaced air, and then he was greeted with a girl with dark hair and a book bag slung over one shoulder.

"Dai stihó, cousin," Danny said.

"Dai," Nita replied.

"I'm making coffee. Want some?"

"Oh yes, please," Nita said.

A few minutes later, they were settled in Danny's kitchen with coffee.

"Have you done any reading on kernels?" Nita asked.

"A little. I was looking at the chapter over breakfast after you messaged me, but I kept having to flip back to earlier chapters trying to figure out what things meant. Tom wasn't kidding when he said it was advanced. I don't think I have anything resembling the gist of it. I think they're named after Unix kernels?"

"Other way around, but yes. Kernels are the heart of a system; they control its rules. Manipulate a kernel and you manipulate that system."

Danny's stomach dropped and twisted, his breakfast contemplating making a return appearance. "No wonder Tom freaked out when he found out I'd seen one."

Nit nodded. "Thank the Powers you didn't try to mess around with it."

"Tom said something about a practice universe? Is that how you learn to work with them?"

"Yes. They're small, controlled universes where you can make changes to their kernels without causing a universal catastrophe if you mess it up."

"Sounds like a lot of responsibility for a noob," Danny said.

"The Powers never give you anything you can't handle, scary as it sounds. On my Ordeal we had to read from The Book of Night With Moon to keep the Dark One from taking over. If we'd read it wrong, all of New York would've been lost."

"We?"

"My wizardry partner, Kit."

"Partner. Lucky."

"Just because you're one of the few wizards in town doesn't mean you have to practice the Art in a box."

Hagrid picked that moment to leap into Danny's lap. "What am I? A spray bottle?"

"Dai stihó, cousin," Nita said.

"Dai," Hagrid replied.

"This is Hagrid. Wait, is that actually your name? I just realized I never asked."

"It's a good enough name." Hagrid head butted Danny's chest.

"I understand you now, you could just ask." Danny scratched Hagrid behind the ears.

Hagrid snorted. "Silly human."

Nita grinned, but her eyes were unfocused.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, fine. Kit just lost his dog a little while back and..."

"Gotcha," Danny said.

"Let's move on."

"Ok," Danny said. "Is there any way to figure out what the kernel controls?"

"Can we go take a look at it?"

"Want to drive out to the preserve?" Danny asked. "Or do you want to show me that teleporting trick?"

"Waste of energy," Nita pointed out.

"And gas isn't?" Danny asked.

Nita glared.

"I'm kidding. Let's go."

* * *

"This is the tree stump you can't leave alone?" Nita asked as they found their way to the clearing.

"Yeah. Why?"

"It gives me the creeps." Nita rubbed her arms, probably to smooth over the goosebumps that were starting to appear.

Danny frowned. "The kernel is underneath. There's a cavern or a root cellar or something. It's not very stable."

Nita walked over to the stump and squatted for a closer look.

Danny pulled the flashlight out of his pocket and shined it into the darkness below.

"I think I can shore it up a bit." Nita patted the earth.

"Can I help?" Danny asked.

"It's a little bit harder when you're just starting out," Nita replied. "You'd need more supplies. Just watch and learn." Nita took a deep breath. "Hi there, roots."

Danny would've raised an eyebrow, but he'd been talking to stranger things on a daily basis since he took the Oath.

"Can you wriggle a little bit to the outside? That way the dirt won't fall apart. Isn't that easier? You know, dirt, as comfy as being soft is, you could be a little harder. Give the roots a little more to dig into. You used to be hard. A long time ago you were made out of rock. Wouldn't it be nice to be that hard again? Not have to worry about going tumbling down out of your nice spot."

Nita tested the hollow with her foot. "Yup, there you go."

"Wow," Danny said. "I don't think I'll ever be able to do that."

"You will," Nita said. "It just takes time and practice. And sometimes a bit of stored wizardry. We still need to be careful. More wizardry could shake everything loose. In theory, it should stay up for awhile now, but after time it'll start coming loose again. It should be safe enough for us to go have a look though." Nita started climbing down.

"This was easier with... whatever happened when I started to describe the tree stump in the first exercise. Everything was glowing."

"Take a deep breath, relax. Then think about that description," Nita said.

The glow of the kernel sprang into existence like a match being struck. It was easier to pick the way down now that the Earth was was firmer at Nita's behest.

"The tree stump may not give me the creeps, but this place definitely does," Danny said.

"This place does feel wrong." Nita moved over to the kernel. "This makes no sense. See how these tendrils all feed into the roots?"

"Yeah," Danny said.

"It looks like this is the kernel for the tree that used to be here," Nita said, "but it's pulsing like the kernel of a living thing. The tree is dead."

"You're right," Danny said. "Nothing makes sense. What could possibly cause that?"

"I don't know," Nita said.

"It's my job to find out, isn't it?" Danny asked.

"Probably," Nita replied.

"How am I going to learn all the things I need to learn and still keep up with all my other homework?"

"Welcome to being a wizard," Nita replied.

"I need to remember to never listen to Jackson," Danny muttered.

"Hmm?" Nita asked as she started climbing out of the hollow.

"Thanks for the consult," Danny said as he emerged from the tree stump.

"Anytime." Nita dusted off her jeans. "Let me know if you have questions."

"Will do. You want a ride back into town?"

"It's probably easier and more private for me to transit from here. And yes, you can watch."

Danny didn't even try to suppress his grin.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

After seeing Nita transit home, Danny had just enough time to get ready to meet Lydia for lunch. He found her sitting at an outside table at the restaurant. Her dog's leash was tied to a table leg. Prada greeted him with a wagging tail and a bark of "Hello."

"Hey, Prada." Danny stooped to pet the small dog. "How're you doing?" he asked in the Speech. He'd found no one seemed to notice him speaking in it.

"Lydia misses Jackson. I'm glad to see you; she's been pretty sad."

Danny wanted to reply to that, but while Lydia might not notice that he wasn't speaking in English; she would understand what he was saying. "Good girl."

"Non sequitur much?" Prada asked, the Cyene--dog language--somehow taking on Lydia's lilt.

Danny tried hard to stifle a laugh.

"Yes, my crazy dog is hysterical," Lydia said. "Are you going to sit down and talk to me or did you come just to pet Prada?"

Danny took a seat. "I didn't know you were bringing Prada."

"It was a nice day and she was looking pathetic. How was your date last night?"

Danny opened the menu, looking it over.

"Danny, we've been here three dozen times, you know the menu."

"It was..."

"Danger! You stay away!" Prada shouted at the top of her lungs. To most people, it was just barking, but Danny could still understand.

"Prada, shh," Lydia said calmly.

"Stay away from Lydia! Don't you dare hurt her again!"

"Lovely dog; so well behaved," said a voice coming out of the door. "Lydia, what a surprise." The speaker came up to their table. His sandy hair was greased back to emphasize the widow's peak on his forehead. The man looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. He was smiling, but it appeared pasted on and rang false.

He gave Danny the chills.

"Peter," Lydia said coldly.

"No!" Prada strained at her leash, but the man was standing just out of her reach. "Don't talk to her! Danger!"

"What's wrong, Prada?" Danny asked, hoping she would understand English--something was wrong and he didn't want to use the Speech in front of this man. He swept the little dog up to keep her from choking herself with the leash.

"He hurt Lydia before! He smells like he's a wolf. He's trouble! Make him go away!"

"Very hyper dog there." Peter frowned, glaring at Prada. "You might want to look into obedience training."

"She's a very smart dog. Go away." Lydia made a shooing motion with her hands.

"That's my girl!" Prada squirmed, trying to get out of Danny's arms. "You tell him."

"Have a nice lunch." Peter clapped Danny's shoulder, sending a chill down his spine, and then walked away.

"That's right; keep on walking, Mister," Prada growled. "Be glad Danny didn't let me at you."

It was all that Danny could do not to drop the small dog. He'd been a wizard for weeks and he had yet to hear Hagrid use a single one of his friends' names.

Lydia took the dog from Danny. "It's OK, Prada; did the big bad wolf hurt you?"

"No! I was keeping him from hurting you!"

"Big bad wolf?" Danny echoed.

"Private joke." Lydia set Prada down on the ground.

The little dog curled up at her feet, spent from the last few minutes' excitement.

Lydia pulled out her phone.

"Please tell me you're texting your parents about that creep."

"Yeah." Lydia's sarcastic tone suggested that she was doing anything but and that Danny should mind his own business.

Normally, he'd leave this kind of thing to Jackson, who somehow could get Lydia to listen to him when no one else could, but Jackson wasn't even in the hemisphere.

"Lydia, you need to tell someone."

"Mrs. McCall knows." Lydia put her phone back in her purse.

Danny blinked. "Mrs. McCall? Like Scott McCall's mom?"

"Yup." Lydia popped the p.

"Okay." Danny hoped that didn't count as a lie; things felt anything but OK. The only reason he was willing to drop it was that Mrs. McCall seemed like the type to call Lydia's mom about this--but since when was Lydia close enough with Scott to know his mom?

"You still haven't told me about your date with Ethan," Lydia prompted.

"It was okay," Danny said, stomach wrenching about how suspicious he'd been the entire time. He wasn't sure why Ethan would smell funny to Hagrid, but Prada's reaction to the creepy guy left no doubt in Danny's mind who was responsible for the birds' kamikaze run on the first day of school.

Lydia made a face. "So do you like him?"

Danny shrugged. "I don't know, we had a rough start, Hagrid hated him for some reason..."

Was Lydia smiling?

"...and I kept sticking my foot in my mouth. After that it got better. We're going to try a study date later this week."

Lydia's face fell. Danny studied her, trying to figure out where this was going.

"Just..." Lydia paused, looking down at the table. "Be careful, OK?"

"You're one to talk. You're dating his brother."

"No, I'm using him for sex; there's a difference."

"Has Aiden ever told you what happened to their parents?"

"Huh?"

Wow, Danny had actually gotten _more_ information. "They have a guardian. Deucalion."

He paused as Lydia winced at the name.

"What?"

"The name's from Greek mythology: the son of Prometheus. They basically built a chest while Zeus flooded the world clean after Prometheus stole fire."

"Like Noah's ark?"

"Pretty much," Lydia said. "Do you know why the Jews consider Abraham to be the first Jew even though Noah heard the word of G-d?"

"No, why?" Danny asked, wondering how Lydia knew this stuff.

"It's because Abraham argued with G-d against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Noah didn't at the flood. Noah just did as he was told and saved himself."

"What's this got to do with Aiden and Ethan's guardian?"

"He has a creepy name," Lydia said. "Why are they with him?"

"Ethan refused to talk about it."

"I'm sure it's a horridly sordid tale of pain and suffering that Ethan will talk about when he's good and ready and not a moment before."

"Yeah," Danny said.

"So what else is going on?" Lydia asked. "We haven't really talked in forever."

"That's because you're always sitting with McCall and Stilinski at lunch. What's up with that?"

"Allison's sitting with them."

"I thought she and McCall broke up."

"So they say."

Danny cocked an eyebrow.

"Have you heard from Jackson lately?" Lydia asked.

So Danny wouldn't be getting any answers on that front either. He might have to resort to drastic measures and have a private conversation with Lydia's dog.

* * *

Danny rounded the corner at school on Monday to see Lydia slamming the new girl's locker.

"Lydia, what the hell?" she snapped.

"That's my question! I tell you that your creepy uncle was sniffing around me on Saturday and Derek's response is 'I'll talk to him?'"

"I'm not the boss of my brother."

"You should be!" Lydia stalked off.

The girl sighed and turned around to reopen her locker.

Danny approached, making sure his footfalls were audible in the crowded hallway. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I've had my share of run-ins with mean girls. Thanks for asking." She pulled some books from her locker.

"I don't think we've met. I'm Danny Mahealani."

She turned around. "Cora Hale."

Hale? Something tickled the back of his brain. "Well, Cora, keep up that attitude with Lydia. She has her off moments, but she's usually not a mean girl."

"Stiles must like her for a reason." She zipped her backpack and the warning bell rang. "I need to get to class." Cora took off down the hallway.

Hale. Why did he know that name? The internet should be able to tell him that. And hopefully her uncle had the same last name. Unless he could find a reference to them.

* * *

Danny started by Googling "Derek Hale" "Cora Hale" and "Peter" with "Beacon Hills". After that, he almost wished he hadn't. He'd been pretty young but he remembered all the talk bouncing around town after the big fire. How he'd forgotten it was the Hale fire was beyond him.

The facts in the news articles online didn't match up with what he knew. Cora Hale was listed amongst the dead. While Peter Hale was listed amongst the living, it said he was burned almost beyond recognition and in a vegetative state. The man who had freaked out Lydia over the weekend didn't appear the slightest bit burned and had control of all his (creepy) faculties. There was a girl who survived, Laura. Maybe the paper had listed the wrong name as a survivor. A quick hack of the records showed that Laura had survived, and no body for Cora was ever found. Apparently she'd gotten out and fallen through the cracks of the system. There was also a death certificate for Peter Hale from the previous spring.

Then, Peter Hale turned up renting an apartment downtown shortly after Lydia's birthday. Danny hacked the building security cameras, and yeah, there was the creeper.

Who was this guy? More importantly what was he up to? Could the Lone Power manifest as dead people? That could be a serious issue. He wondered if he was allowed to consult a more experienced wizard about these things.

Figuring it couldn't hurt to ask, Danny called Tom Swale, who, before Danny could ask a thing, told him that his request for access to the practice universes had been denied.

Danny breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good right? It means that I don't have to go messing around with any kernels. I still don't know what I'm supposed to do. I found the actual guy who smells like dog--really creepy and he's supposed to be dead, but he has an apartment downtown; it makes no sense."

"Maybe you'd better tell me everything," Tom said.

Danny did, feeling better just for the telling of it. "At least the one who smells like dog isn't the guy I went out with Saturday night, although..." He paused. Oops. _Guy_. He hadn't meant to mention it.

"Although?" Tom prompted.

"He was still kind of secretive and... it's probably none of my business. What really worries me is why the heck Lydia told Derek Hale that this guy was being a creepizoid, but she won't tell her parents. How does she even know Derek Hale?"

"Could Lydia be one of the guardians that the raven mentioned?"

"Maybe. That might explain things. It still doesn't tell me what happened with the birds on the first day of school or what the kernel in the tree stump has to do with anything."

"I'd look for a connection between Peter Hale and that stump of yours if I were you."

Something clicked in Danny's head. "I saw him in the preserve. The day I took the oath."

"He's definitely who you need to focus on, but be mindful of entropy. No more hacking, all right?"

"What about a monitoring spell on the stump?"

"Sounds like a good starting place," Tom said. "Go well and good luck."

"Dai," Danny said. "And thank you."

He disconnected the phone, then stared at the app.

"Great. More studying."

* * *

Danny went back out to the tree stump to think. There wasn't much connection to the stump, but there was one other big mystery there: Why was the kernel alive when the tree stump wasn't?

Danny sat on the tree stump thinking hard about his description again, like Nita had taught him the other day; he waited until the tendrils were visible. There seemed to be more this time; as if Danny practicing his spelling had somehow made his sight more sensitive.

There weren't just tendrils going into the tree stump, into the roots. They came out of the kernel, spreading in a nexus in all directions. They were going into the surrounding trees, out over the horizon, into the city, deeper into the preserve. Into _him_.

Danny pulled out his phone, using the drawing function on the camera to take in the pattern. Maybe he could use overlays of some of the different maps in the Manual.

A small window popped up on the touch screen:

Location Information. Show? Yes/No

He tapped yes.

A map entitled "telluric currents" popped up, flashing a "you are here" dot in the middle of a giant intersection.

"What the hell is a telluric current?"

Error. Do not use words unwisely.

Danny rolled his eyes. "What is a telluric current?"

A long bunch of text started squirreling through the screen. Danny wondered if he could mirror this on his laptop. That was a lot of reading. And this on top of a term paper for Harris.

Hmmm. Maybe he could do both at once.

* * *

Ethan spilled into the seat opposite Danny at the coffee shop. "Sorry I'm late."

Danny looked at the clock on his computer. "Wow, I hadn't noticed."

"I should've snuck in," Ethan joked.

Danny rolled his eyes. "It's a study date; you're the one losing study time." He scrolled to the next page of Google Scholar results. Harris would give him extra credit for using primary sources instead of just books, right?

"You are such a nerd," Ethan said.

Danny looked up, meeting Ethan's eyes.

Ethan smiled at him.

"I'm not sure what to say to that," Danny said.

Ethan shrugged. "I didn't mean that as a bad thing. What are you writing your term paper on anyway?"

"Telluric currents."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "You mean ley lines?"

Danny scoffed. "That's pseudoscience; they're not really the same thing. Telluric currents are electrical phenomena that result in magnetic currents from atmospheric phenomena, space phenomena, water phenomena..."

"Ok, ok," Ethan said.

"Ley lines are convergences of mystical energy or something like that," Danny said.

Ethan wrinkled his nose. "I could've sworn I'd read they were related somehow." He paused. "Then again, turning that into Harris might not be the world's brightest idea."

Danny snorted. "No, it really wouldn't." He absently wished he could sync the manual app of his WizPhone into his computer so he could look up the Manual's stance on ley lines without doing something obvious on his phone. He was an idiot. Wizardry was more science than magic, but it was still magic.

He needed to know for sure: if there was any relation between the telluric currents intersecting in the kernel and ley lines--and these were magnetic currents that basically went into the control center of the town--then he needed to know all about it before he set up a spell.

"Are you about to shout Eureka or something?" Ethan teased.

Danny wondered, just a bit, whether Ethan's smile meant he thought Danny being a weirdo was cute or whether it meant that he was trying to convince himself that Danny being a weirdo was cute.

Danny frowned. Where had that come from?

"Did you order a hot chocolate?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah, why?" Danny asked.

"Here it comes," Ethan said.

Sure enough, the waiter appeared behind Ethan and placed the steaming mug in front of Danny.

"What can I get you, sir?"

"Dark espresso, black," Ethan said.

"We have several types..."

"Whatever you recommend," Ethan replied.

"On its way," the waiter replied.

"Types of dark espresso?" Ethan murmured. "This place doesn't mess around."

"How much of a half a chocolate cake can you eat?" Danny asked. "This place has really good Black Forrest, but the portions are huge..."

"I can eat whatever you throw at me," Ethan said.

Danny raised an eyebrow.

Ethan flushed. "OK, that came out sleazier than I intended, but I've been accused of being a human garbage disposal on more than one occasion, so bring it."

Danny chuckled. "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

When he got home, Danny pulled out his manual, flipping open the screen so that it was the size of an iPad. It was a neat trick that he'd found in the directions for the app version of the manual; he needed to listen to Hagrid more often.

He grabbed some tracing paper out of the bottom drawer of his desk. And his mom had wanted him to throw it away after 6th grade!

"Bring up the map of the telluric currents," he said.

They swirled. Danny looked at the map on the screen, then unfolded the map he had bought at the gas station on the way home. "Can you zoom the map to the scale of this map?"

Align with and project onto the paper map?

"Yes, please."

The lines sprawled across the map. Danny grabbed a marker, carefully tracing marking the lines for future reference. He wondered if including this with his proposal would impress Harris.

After he finished, Danny got up, stretched, and then brought up the index for the manual. He flopped face up on the bed.

Hagrid hopped up on the bed and hissed.

"What?"

Hagrid arched his back. "You've been hanging out with that thing again."

"I'd rather you didn't talk about my almost boyfriend that way," Danny said.

"You really need to have better taste in men." Hagrid hopped onto Danny's chest, rubbing his cheeks against Danny's face. "Actually, date an actual man, it would help."

"What do you mean by that."

"He's a dog." Hagrid licked Danny's nose.

Danny pushed Hagrid's face away. "That doesn't make any sense."

"I know what I smelled." Hagrid ducked under Danny's hand and started washing his nose again.

"Will you stop that." Danny pushed Hagrid's face away again.

"Be careful." Hagrid leaned over, rubbing his cheeks against Danny's arm. "You're on Ordeal, and you're older than humans usually are. This could get very dangerous."

"I'll be careful." Danny absently scratched Hagrid behind the ears with one hand while scrolling through his WizPhone with the other. 

_Ley lines. Mythical lines of power that allegedly channel magic into specific locations. Some supernatural creatures confuse these for telluric currents._

Danny frowned. Why would Ethan be familiar with a myth particular to supernatural creatures? Why did Hagrid think he smelled like a dog? (How did Hagrid know what a dog smelled like? Danny was going to have to inquire as to his cat's early life before Danny's family had adopted him and general Errantry activities once things settled down.)

In the meantime, he should probably get a second opinion on that scent. He wasn't quite sure how; it wasn't like he could get another animal wizard to get a scent. Unless... He didn't need a wizard; he just needed a friendly animal that he could talk to. Like Prada.

* * *

The next day on a hunch, Danny drove out to the preserve. He reached the tree stump, unfolded his WizPhone and pulled up the manual app. "Pull up the map of Telluric Currents and cross reference to current location please."

The map came to life.

"Can you activate the recording précis function?"

"The précis is activated."

Danny took a deep breath, carefully reciting the description of the clearing and the tree stump again, waiting for the tendrils of energy to appear; once they did, he picked up the manual, holding it up in front of his eyes. "Zoom in, using current location as the center."

Danny's eyes darted back and forth between the manual and the tendrils of energy. Some were small. The larger ones, the ones that shone brightest, however, looked familiar. He folded the phone again, shoving it into his pocket.

He went to one of the older trees and reached up, grabbing a low hanging branch and pushing up with his feet. Once he reached the top of the tree, he could see a nexus of light reaching out into town. He settled against the trunk, then praying to the Powers that Be that he wouldn't have a klutz moment, he pulled out and unfolded his Wizphone. He looked for a place to balance it where it wouldn't take a thirty foot drop, but there were no branches that would fit it. 

Danny frowned, trying to figure out if he could hold the Wizphone and still do what he needed to do. And then he realized he was an idiot; he could use wizardry to assist.

He talked a patch of air in front of him solid, then rested the unfolded phone on top of it. He looked around at the treetops gently swaying in the breeze, the individual leaves disappearing in the rapidly waning light. Lights in the city stretched out below started winking on as people realized it was too dark to see without them.

The tendrils appeared again. "Zoom to fit the map to the horizon," Danny instructed his manual.

He glanced between the tendrils and the map on the phone, comparing.

They matched exactly. The kernel was right in the nexus of intersecting telluric currents.

Was this normal?

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

Danny hit print, flopping down on his bed. His term paper proposal was done!

His phone buzzed.

It was a text from Ethan. _Why are we doing this to ourselves?_

Danny rolled his eyes. _To get into college and make something of our lives._

Ethan replied with: _Can't I just do cross country instead? Meet's in a couple days._

Danny sighed. _If you don't turn in the paper proposal, Harris will give you a zero and Coach will kick you off the team._

_An idle threat, surely?_

_Ask Scott McCall. He had to sit out a school dance and a LaCrosse game when his grades got too low._

_No thanks. You almost done?_

_My printer just ran out of paper. BRB._ Danny refilled the paper tray.

_Jerk. I have hours yet._

Danny rolled his eyes. _Don't ask me about my other homework._

_What were you doing in Study Hall?_

_My other other homework._

_Huh?_

What was Danny going to say? He'd finished his schoolwork but he had errantry left to work on? He picked up his WizPhone and folded it out so that it was iPad sized. 

His phone buzzed again. _Seriously, other other homework?_

_Don't you have a term paper proposal to write?_

_Nag, nag nag._

_Three hours on a bus by myself doesn't sound like fun. No zeroes!_

Danny settled himself in to read up on monitoring spells.

* * *

After school the next day, Danny drove out to the preserve again. (If this kept up he was going to have to get a part time job just to cover all the gas he was using. At least he'd gotten a rowan wand that had been left out in moonlight by trading with Nita for Red Sea Urchin spines and help with her computer science homework.)

He used the rowan wand to trace spell diagrams over the dirt. He set red sea urchin spines around the trees surrounding the tree stump that protected the kernel, then checked the spell diagram against the words he'd carefully planned.

He read them out, feeling the universe leaning in to listen. The glowing letters shimmered and then sank into the Earth.

Danny checked the sea urchin spines, which were pulsing with green light. They would do that for another minute and then the spell would be set.

He should be alerted if something unusual came into the clearing. Now he could focus on other research.

* * *

Danny spent the next several days after setting up the monitoring spell reading; it was after three days of no activity that he realized that his best source of information at the moment was Prada. He was really going to have to have that private talk with the little dog. The good news was he knew enough about the Martins' schedule that he knew a good time--he would just have to sneak into the backyard on Saturday afternoon. The bad news was he would have to wait until Saturday afternoon.

The next issue was what and how to ask Prada. The little dog was pretty astute, but her perceptions were filtered through the lens of a dog. So he'd have to be careful how he phrased things and ask her in a way that she understood.

His main question, of course, was a second opinion on Ethan's scent. He didn't know if Prada had met Aiden yet, but even if she had, that didn't guarantee Ethan smelled the same way. Maybe if Prada was willing to help, he could arrange a double date at Lydia's or something.

He had so many other questions though. Like what had Peter done to Lydia that set Prada off so much? Her hospital stay after the spring formal was the first thing that came to mind. Hadn't that been some kind of animal attack? He'd talk to Prada and if it didn't make sense, well, it's not like he'd _promised_ Tom that he wouldn't do any more hacking.

What else might Prada know about? The birds in band were probably a no go but... Jackson. Jackson's weird behavior before the lacrosse game where everyone thought he was... Could Jackson be an agent... No. No way. He wouldn't have warned Danny off before that LaCrosse game. If anything, Jackson might have been possessed or controlled by the Lone Power.

He had a vague notion that Lahey and McCall had been trying to keep Jackson from hurting anyone, but a quick check in the directory in his manual revealed that they weren't wizards. Maybe just helpful. Danny wished again that he'd ignored Jackson's teasing about the book. Come to think of it, maybe that had been Jackson and maybe it had been the Lone Power talking. He was _so_ screwed.

Magic couldn't change the past though. Danny couldn't do anything but move forward. The plan, such as it was, was to talk to Prada.

* * *

Danny stopped at Petsmart on his way to Lydia's-- Hagrid needed kitty litter and this way he could sweet talk the cashier into letting him have a dog treat "for my girlfriend's dog"--so it wasn't _quite_ the definition of girlfriend she was expecting? So what.

Danny parked a couple of blocks away from the Martin house and walked the rest of the way. A quick glance revealed no one to see him walk up the driveway and let himself into the gates using a key hidden in a fake rock.

"Danny!" Prada zipped up to him, tail going thirty miles an hour. "Lydia's not home!"

"I came to talk to you."

Prada jumped up, resting her front paws on his knee. "You have treats!"

"If you have manners." Danny might be willing to slip into Lydia's backyard uninvited, but he knew better than to mess with Prada's obedience training.

Prada snorted. "You're worse than Lydia, and she named me after a purse!" She hopped down, sitting nicely and looking up at him with big eyes.

"I'm sorry I couldn't talk her out of it."

"Luna would've been a much nicer name. Treat, please?" Prada said.

Danny took half of the dog biscuit out of his pocket and offered it to Prada.

She gulped it down cheerfully.

"What can you tell me about the man we saw at lunch the other day?"

"He's a bad, bad man. He hurt Lydia! That's why she had to go away for awhile. When she came back she smelled funny and would talk to things that weren't there--she told me it was Peter. She still walks without realizing it sometimes, but at least she finally smells right again. And she doesn't think she's crazy anymore, she told me. Um, don't mention that last bit, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone."

Danny mimed zipping his lips. "Not a word about anything you tell me; I promise. What did she smell like when she was smelling funny?"

"Like the bad man--like snake oil and wolf."

"Like the forest?"

"Yes, but that's because she goes there all the time. She doesn't take me."

"So you wouldn't know anything about tree stumps?"

"They're good for going to the bathroom on, but we only go for walks in the neighborhood." Prada's ears drooped. "I try to sneak along when Lydia and Allison go to the woods, but they always catch me."

"What about Jackson?"

Prada growled. "He made Lydia sad. I used to like him, but..."

"Was anything odd about him before he left?"

"He smelled... like something else. Kind of a little like the toads that hop through the backyard sometimes--they're fun to chase, there was one..."

"Please tell me about Jackson."

"Right, sorry; he started smelling a little like the toads, and that was when he started acting funny and making Lydia sad. The last time he came though, he smelled... it was like he was himself, but he was also a wolf?" Prada laid her head in her paws. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to describe it."

"That helps," Danny said. He wondered if anyone attacked or controlled by the Lone Power smelled like a wolf to animals.

"Has anyone else smelled funny?"

"Allison sometimes smells like she's been playing with a wolf. The new boy, um, Stiles? Sometimes he smells like he's been playing with a wolf too."

Stiles had been over? Interesting. Weird. A little irrelevant (to the wizardry) but interesting. Danny had no idea why he would smell like a wolf. Allison--was a bit of an odd duck, maybe she had a husky or something. Or maybe they hung out with McCall and Lahey who were being helpful in a non-wizardly capacity? It was hard to say.

"Has Lydia introduced you to Aiden yet?" Danny asked.

"Who's Aiden?" Prada asked.

And Stiles had been over? Weird!

"Thank you, Prada." Danny handed her the other half of the dog biscuit.

Prada munched happily. "Can you scratch behind my ears, please?"

"Since you asked me so nicely." Danny reached out, wondering what Hagrid would say when he came home smelling of Lydia's dog.

Prada leaned into his fingers. "Don't tell Lydia I said this, but you give the best ear scratches."

"That secret's safe with me too."

* * *

So if people who smelled of wolf were hurt or had been possessed by the Lone Power that meant what?

Danny shuddered, remembering his night with Ethan in the hotel room the night of the aborted cross country meet. Had that been ill advised?

Then again, Ethan was always so hesitant to talk about his past. Was Ethan recovering from some awful experience with the Lone Power? Or was he still affected by it? There was no way to tell. Hopefully a little doting would go a long way... it was possible Danny had it bad, but there was no evidence that Ethan was actually evil or dangerous. Other than Stilinski being a prick about Ethan checking his phone. (And being worried about a friend was a totally reasonable excuse.) Then again, McCall had been acting off that day, which would be enough to have Stilinski acting weirder than usual. And Danny had bigger fish to fry.

He knew Lydia wasn't evil, and Prada had said that Lydia smelled like dog for awhile. She'd been hallucinating for awhile after the attack, and Prada said she still had issues. Probably, the Lone Power had made a valiant effort, but had discovered that no one controls Lydia Martin.

Briefly, Danny wondered why she wasn't a wizard, but it occurred to him that Lydia was as likely to use magic to find a sale at Macy's as to try to reduce entropy--or, more likely use it to reduce entropy and _then_ use it to find a sale at Macy's.

This all lead to the question: why wolves?

Finally: something he could look up. Danny searched the manual for "wolves and 'Lone Power.'" The first entry that came up was labeled "perytons:"

_Perytons are wolf-like creatures that serve the Lone Power. They will rend a wizard limb from limb. Avoid at all costs._

Danny settled in with the rest of the "servants of the Lone Power" chapter, as it actually looked useful. When he had finished reading it, he wasn't sure how smart of an idea that was; he was likely to have nightmares for a week.

It was probably that Lydia and the others had been attacked by these servants of the Lone Power. What Danny needed was some better evidence--Hagrid and Jackson had never gotten along, so asking Hagrid about Jackson's scent last year as a second opinion was kind of useless. (This was assuming he could communicate to Hagrid who Jackson was since he didn't seem to care to learn Danny's friends' names.) Danny wondered what Ethan would smell like to a creature with a more experienced nose. What he needed was an excuse to introduce Ethan to Prada.

No sooner had he had the thought than he got a text message from Lydia: _Aiden's never seen The Notebook._

Danny was going to have to do some serious penance for what he was about to suggest, but he sent Lydia the text before he could change his mind. _We have to fix this. Double date?_

_My place. Better theater._

Danny smiled. Perfect. _And Hagrid hates Ethan. Prada's much more social._

_I'll check with Aiden. Tomorrow night?_

_We have a cross country meet. Friday?_

_Done. You want to tell Ethan?_

Duh.

Danny went into his contacts, and selected Ethan and the "call" button.

"Hello?" Ethan's voice was far away and a little strained.

"It's Danny, did I wake you?"

"No just... crap day. What's up?"

"Lydia informs me that you and Aiden haven't seen The Notebook. How's Friday night?"

"Wouldn't have pegged you for watching chick flicks."

"I have my moments," Danny said. "Plus it's an excuse to cuddle in the dark without worrying about a 60 year old movie usher acting _en loco parentis_ and shining a flashlight in our eyes."

"Okay, that part's tempting. Would you believe I have never been on a double date with Aiden?"

"It's past time then. Just no switching places on Lydia and me."

"Oh, G-d no, I'd have to kiss Lydia. There will be no switching and distinct outfits so no one gets confused."

"Deal," Danny said.

He could hear clipped tones in the distance on the other side of the phone.

"I've got to go," Ethan said, sounding put upon. "See you in school okay?"

"Later," Danny replied.

* * *

Danny rang Lydia's door bell half an hour before Aiden and Ethan were due to arrive, cake pan and DVD in hand.

"Danny! You're early! Are those Rice Krispie Treats?"

"Yes. I figured you'd be running around like a headless chicken trying to get everything just right about now, so I thought I'd come help."

He also was hoping for a private chat with Prada before the twins arrived.

Lydia kissed Danny's cheek. "You're too nice.'

"Thanks."

"You want to put those in the living room?"

"Sure." Danny walked into the living room to find Prada curled up on the couch.

"Danny!" Prada sprang to her feet. "I must've slept through the doorbell!" She leapt off the couch and ran to him, tail wagging. "That looks yummy."

"Not for you, there's chocolate chips, they'll make you sick. I did bring you something." He set the Rice Krispie treats on the table, then reached into his bag, pulling a dog treat out of the package he'd bought (at the rate this was going, he was going to need them.)

"I need a favor." Danny handed Prada a treat.

"You didn't have to bribe me!" Prada chewed on the treat.

"I need you to get a good smell of Ethan and Aiden when they get here and tell me what you think. Especially if they smell close to either Jackson or Peter."

Prada blinked up at him. "I'm supposed to be good."

Danny fingered the bag of dog treats.

"I suppose it would only be friendly to say hello and give them a good sniff, right?"

"Absolutely." Danny reached out and scratched her behind the ears.

"Charmer."

* * *

Prada raced to the door when the bell rang, meeting Lydia as she opened it.

"I think I'm insulted," Danny joked.

"I slept through the doorbell!" Prada's tail was wagging in circles.

"Prada, chill out before you helicopter into liftoff," Lydia said. "Sit!"

Prada sat on the welcome mat until Lydia had ushered the twins in and closed the door. Then she leapt to her feet, racing up to them.

"Is that a tail or a propeller you've got there?" Ethan asked. He squatted down, holding out his hands for Prada to smell.

"This is Prada; she's very excitable, but she's friendly," Lydia said.

"You named your dog after a fashion designer?" Aiden asked.

"Well, if we'd ended up with a boy dog, it would've been Hawking," Lydia replied. 

"Why couldn't she name me Luna? Everyone always asks why I'm named after a purse." Prada took a good sniff. "Except the other guy. Maybe he's a keeper."

She gave Ethan's hand a couple of good licks. "He smells like wolf and human. Kind of like Jackson and sort of like the wolf that Allison and Stiles smell like sometimes."

She moved on, sniffing Aiden's legs.

"Let her sniff your hand, Aiden, or she'll be insufferable," Danny said.

Lydia smacked his arm. "Hey!"

"She's just very friendly," Danny said with a smile.

Aiden sighed, then squatted down, presenting his hands for Prada to sniff. "At least she's not attacking me like Danny's cat with Ethan."

"You should've gotten a dog, Danny." Prada looked up at Ethan's face. "Whoa!" Prada barked with surprise, looking from Aiden to Ethan.

"Look a lot alike, huh?" Ethan asked. "We smell different, though, I bet, go check it out. You're not seeing double, I promise."

"It's OK, Prada," Danny added in the Speech. "Get a good sniff."

Prada did, Aiden watching her with trepidation.

"He's similar. Not like Peter, but not really like Jackson either."

Maybe Lydia should take her own advice about being careful.

"Are we going to play with the dog or watch the movie?" Aiden hauled himself to his feet.

"Wait, there's a choice?" Ethan scratched Prada behind the ears. "I vote for Prada."

"Me too!" Prada said, leaning into the ear scratches.

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Seriously, bro? Come on."

Ethan sighed.

"Cuddling in the dark," Danny said.

"Okay." Ethan stood up reluctantly.

"I'm in too!" Prada said, following them into the living room.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

After dinner, Danny flopped down on the bed, unfolding his WizPhone. Hagrid hopped on the bed and promptly stretched out on Danny's chest.

Danny scratched Hagrid absently behind the ears. "Do you know anything about kernels and telluric currents?"

"Together?" Hagrid asked.

"Yes," Danny said. He'd been focusing on muggle knowledge of telluric currents, but hadn't really run into anything so far that would explain why they were so tightly linked to the kernel.

"Why together?" Hagrid asked.

Danny explained what he had seen in the clearing for the tree stump.

Hagrid licked his paw, then ran it over the bridge of his nose. "That's weird." He frowned.

Danny sighed, wiggling the phone so he could see it without disrupting Hagrid too much.

"I'm in the way, aren't I?" Hagrid asked.

"If you could turn sideways and let me use you as an iPad rest?" Danny suggested. "I really need to look this up in the Manual."

"You won't find it in there." Hagrid calmly continued washing himself, making no effort to move. "The Whispering just told me no one knows."

"You just..."

"Just because it's not shiny doesn't mean I don't have access to the communal knowledge. Now, hush, the Whispering is telling me about your précis now."

Danny blinked. "I... wow."

"I'm a wizard too." Hagrid stretched out his paws, knocking Danny's WizPod off of his chest. "Now shush."

"How come you weren't put on this?" Danny asked.

"Because you're the answer to this problem, not me, but I can help if you let me listen to the Whispering."

"So shouldn't I read the manual?"

"Can you scratch behind my ears first, please?"

"Since you asked so nicely," Danny answered. It was, after all, better than being head butted.

Hagrid moved his head. "Under the chin too, please. You give the best head scratches."

"So I'm told." Danny scratched him under the chin, then settled down with the manual while Hagrid listened to the Whispering, whatever that was.

"You really need to consult a kernel expert on this," Hagrid suggested.

Danny brought up the messaging function of his manual. "Hey, Nita, I have some questions when you have a minute."

"Only some?" Nita replied, her picture popping up.

Cool, Danny didn't know his WizPhone app had video conferencing.

"I saw your précis; the manual either decided that since I was consulting, I would be interested or Someone figured you'd be calling." Nita paused, wrinkling her nose. "Are you lying down?"

"My cat has me pinned." Danny turned the pad around. "This is Hagrid."

The cat opened a sleepy eye. "Dai stihó." He yawned.

"Dai, cousin," Nita said.

Danny turned the pad around to face him again. "Does this sort of thing happen a lot?"

"Wait until you're done with Ordeal and you start getting recruited to group projects," Nita replied.

Danny raised an eyebrow, his stomach knotting. "Group..."

"Don't worry," Nita said. "Everyone works together, it's fine. So you had questions?"

"The tendrils that come out of the kernel... well, not all the tendrils, but there's a definite subset... they line up with the telluric currents in the town. Is that normal?"

"Not that I've heard of," Nita said. "When I first saw your précis, I went to the Playroom for the ischemic universes and asked around: no one's seen anything."

"The manual's pretty vague too," Danny sighed. "I'm not sure what it means, but I feel like it's important. Can I ask you a completely random question?"

"Those are the best kind."

"Have you ever found that magic and myth are related?"

"The Norse god Thor used to live in my friend Ronan."

Danny blinked. "I... ok. So there's a myth, and I don't know what's weirder: that the manual said it was amongst Supernatural creatures or that my boyfriend knows it... but it says that telluric currents and ley lines are the same thing."

"Your boyfriend is a supernatural creature?"

"My cat says he smells like a dog..."

"He does! Stay away from him!" Hagrid dug in his claws as he leapt off of Danny's chest and bolted out of the room.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Cats. Also, my friend's dog says Ethan--that's my boyfriend--smells like a wolf."

"Where's Ponch when you need him?" Nita muttered.

"Who's Ponch?"

"My boyfriend's dog. He... ascended? It's complicated."

"Sometime when we're not on Errantry I'm going to have to buy you lunch, so you can tell me all these stories," Danny said. "I was thinking he might be a peryton."

Nita shuddered. "Trust me, Cousin, if he was a peryton, you'd know it. I mean, he doesn't have fur and sharp teeth, does he?"

"No." Danny shifted to a more comfortable position. "Still, I don't know why he knows this stuff."

"You could ask him." Nita bit her lip. "You might leave out what Hagrid and the dog told you."

Danny frowned. He could try that.

* * *

After they were settled at the table, and had given the waitress their orders, Danny bit his lip, wondering if he could ask what he needed to without Ethan thinking that he was weird.

Ethan grinned at him. "I bugged out on you for no reason; whatever you're going to ask me is no weirder than that."

Danny blinked.

"How?"

"You bite your lip when you're nervous," Ethan said.

Awww. Danny laughed, feeling both self-conscious and a little guilty for ever suspecting Ethan about anything.

"I was just wondering." Danny picked up the napkin wrapped silverware and opened the napkin. "Where did you hear about ley lines and telluric currents being the same thing?"

Ethan wrinkled his nose, forehead following. It was so cute when he thought hard like that.

OK, now he was feeling doubly bad, because he was picking up on Ethan's nervous ticks as well.

"My grandmother," Ethan said. "She said they were nexuses of places of power that..." he frowned... "watched over a place? No, that's not right. They could be used to protect or they could be used to control. That everything was controlled by them."

It certainly _sounded_ like a kernel. Maybe the telluric currents boosted the kernel's effects and that somehow made people think they were mystical things like ley lines.

"Did your grandmother have a lot of stories like that?" Danny asked.

"Like what?"

"Like mine told me the story of Lonopuha, who brought healing to Hawaii," Danny said. "I got back to school after that winter break, I told the other kids at school when we got back and most of them pulled faces."

"That's it?"

"Well, this one kid, Theo, he tried to hit me, but Lydia tripped him."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Lydia tripped him?"

"Don't mess with Lydia." Danny replied.

"Noted," Ethan replied. "So you want to tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"The story of Lobo..."

"Lonopuha," Danny corrected.

"Yeah, that."

"OK, sure."

* * *

"And then all the kids stared at me," Ethan said.

"Well you didn't finish the story," Danny pointed out.

"Dude, the sanitized kiddie version of the tale may end with the huntsman cutting Little Red Riding Hood out of the wolf's stomach, but in the original version everybody dies."

"Sounds like a bad horror film," Danny said.

"We've been scaring each other since before we could write," Ethan said.

"Oh excuse me!"

Danny looked up to see the waitress twist their tray away from a brunette woman wearing a pencil skirt and knit shawl.

"No worries," the waitress said. "Have a nice night."

"Thanks, you too." The woman turned to face them.

"Hi, Ms. Blake," Danny said, shifting uncomfortably. It was always weird running into teachers outside of school.

"Danny, Ethan, have a nice date," Ms. Blake said, walking out past them.

Ethan blushed crimson. "How did she..."

"If you don't want to be out at school, don't date the only out gay guy," Danny said with a shrug. "Especially one with no poker face."

Ethan chuckled. "Yeah, OK, so the moon eyes you were making at me did make it pretty obvious you were interested."

"Sorry, whose was the bacon burger again?" the waitress asked.

"Mine," Ethan said.

She slid the burger in front of Ethan, then slid the corresponding one in front of Danny.

"Thanks," they said as once.

"You're so cute together," the waitress said.

Ethan blushed again.

"Thank you," Danny said. He stirred the side salad to get it more evenly covered in ranch dressing. If he had to eat greens, he was going to get as much flavor on them as possible.

* * *

They paid and decided to take a walk in the park. Danny was feeling a little off, but he couldn't quite name it as he followed Ethan out of the restaurant.

Ethan reached out and Danny took his hand, turning out of the doorway and heading right towards Memorial Park. 

"Do we turn at this street or the next one?" Ethan asked.

Danny squinted--he needed to get his contacts checked, the street sign shouldn't be so blurry. "Um, Jameson?"

"Next block," Ethan said.

Danny's stomach twisted.

Ethan stopped. "Are you okay?"

"I think so; I probably shouldn't have had that second milkshake." Danny lurched.

Ethan wrapped an arm around Danny's waist almost as fast as he lost his balance, which was faster than Danny would have thought possible (he must have been sicker than he thought). 

Danny's vision clouded over. "Ow, my chest."

"Not good," Ethan said. "Let's get you to the emergency room."

"But..."

"We're going."

Had Ethan's eyes just flashed red?

At any rate, he was steering Danny towards the parking garage, and if Danny pulled away, he would fall, so he let himself be led.

* * *

The next thing Danny distinctly remembered was Ms. McCall standing over him with a hypodermic needle in her hand.

"Thank you," he gasped, still drawing air into his lungs.

Ms. McCall and Scott withdrew.

Danny felt in his pockets for his phone. "I should..." he rasped. "Call.."

"I got it," Ethan said, pulling Danny's phone out of his pocket. "You dropped it in the car."

Well, this was going to be interesting.

* * *

"How are you doing, Danny?" a familiar voice asked the next afternoon.

"Having weird dreams about my LaCrosse teammates going through my backpack," Danny said. "You..." the voice clicked. "Tom! I didn't know Seniors made house calls. Well, hospital calls. Especially on Ordeal."

"If there's a hospital involved, I like to check in," Tom said. "And we keep a closer eye on older probationary wizards: their problems are inordinately complex. What happened?"

"I'm not sure," Danny said. "The doctors say it was unknown poison. Ethan says I was throwing up whole mistletoe berries, but according to the doctors, mistletoe poisoning doesn't cause collapsed lungs."

"I'm sensing some hesitation," Tom said, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

"He... seemed guilty. Like he should've known or something? Anyway, the health department checked out the restaurant where we were eating right before I got sick, but they didn't find anything. And you would think I would've noticed eating mistletoe berries."

Tom leaned in, resting his chin on his hand. 

"You think it was the Lone Power?"

"No, not directly." Tom sat up. "Sometimes in older onset cases you end up confronting a servant of the Lone Power instead of the Lone Power Itself. I wouldn't put it past one of them. Anything unusual happen today?"

"Harris didn't like my proposal for a term paper on Telluric Currents," Danny said. "Usually if you give him as many peer reviewed sources as I produced he doesn't break out the word 'pseudoscience', which is weird, but nothing in a creepy sense of 'weird'."

"Anything unusual at the restaurant?"

"My English teacher? I mean, I guess that's not unusual, teachers have to have lives, but she wasn't with anyone?" Danny shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Well, Someone is clearly upset with what you're doing, so keep it up. Just be careful."

"At least my boyfriend dragged my stubborn butt here in time for them to do something," Danny said.

Tom smiled. "The ones that out stubborn you for your own good tend to be keepers."

Danny flushed.

"Speaking of, Carl will be home soon and he had a meeting with his least favorite producer today, so I'd better get going. Be careful, and if you need anything call."

"Nita's been helping me brainstorm, but I will. Thanks. Dai stihó."

"Dai. Rest, Cousin."

Danny laid back. He was making Someone nervous. How could he be doing that when he didn't even know what he was doing?

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

Danny had been doing a lot more research on kernels. Lots of research. The kernel in the tree stump was awfully big to be for just a tree stump. And in thousands of years no one had seen the kernel for a living system outlive that system. So something about Nita's diagnosis didn't seem quite right. Not that he doubted her competence, but it was a quick look. And this was _his_ ordeal. As Hagrid had explained, that meant no one else could deal with it. Which meant he needed to figure these things out for himself.

So he drove out the preserve, intent on both studying the kernel further and checking on his monitoring wizardry. He parked the car, shouldering the backpack with his supplies. There were a few other cars in the parking lot but no other people. Danny walked along the trail, glad his backpack wouldn't be conspicuous. He was nearly to the tree stump clearing when someone barreled into him; knocking him down.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked once he recovered from the shock.

It was a woman with a long ponytail, wearing a form fitting top that was a little big to be a sports bra, strictly speaking, and tight leggings. She turned to face him, and Danny recognized Ms. Blake.

"Sorry, Danny, I should watch where I'm going." Ms. Blake pushed herself up, brushing dirt and fallen leaves from her clothes. "Ready for the memorial concert?"

Danny sometimes regretted ever taking up the trumpet. "Yeah, just clearing my head before practice." Or alleviating his wizarding concerns so he could focus on other things. Same difference.

"Jogging," Ms. Blake said.

Danny wondered why she felt the need to justify her presence. "Well, um, keep your eyes on the road?" he said, feeling weirdly awkward. Ms. Blake always unsettled him, though he could never figure out why. Probably because the first time he met her was the day that birds flew into the classroom windows. "See you in school."

"See you." Ms. Blake jogged towards the parking lot.

Danny continued to the clearing where the tree stump was, and frowned. He took a deep breath, stretching out with this wizard sense. No. He didn't feel any sign of his monitoring wizardry. In theory, it should've been set off by its own decay and alerted him that it needed attention, but he hadn't felt anything. He'd have to go through his notes carefully and check his Spelling before he put it back up. If the wizardry was unstable, then he was very lucky that he didn't screw up the very thing that he was trying to protect. Instead of reinstating the wizardry, Danny checked on Nita's shoring up spell--that, of course was working perfectly. He felt a little guilty, checking up on her analysis when it was clear she was more experienced and competent than he was. (His wizardry had failed, and he'd prepared it for ages, Nita's was still in place and she'd winged it.)

Danny prayed to whatever Power that would listen that his strength and knowledge would be sufficient to pass his Ordeal. He climbed down into the hollow and sat cross-legged, extinguishing the flashlight he'd brought to climb down.

Carefully, deliberately, he thought about the tree stump, the hollow, and the roots surrounding it. The warm glow of the kernel filled the hollow. Danny didn't move, just studied the kernel closely. He could see the tendrils of light that Nita had pointed out, extending into the tree roots and the soil.

As he examined the kernel, he started to see other tendrils. Some shimmering, some sparkling, some pulsing with life. These went upward, outward, and one ran straight to Danny. He got up, carefully, wanting to follow the ones that went through the top of the hollow. When he could still see, he slowly, carefully climbed out of the hollow. At the top of the tree stump, many tendrils went out, spreading in all directions, large bundles heading towards the city.

He was right. This wasn't just the kernel for a tree stump; it was the kernel for all of Beacon Hills.

Danny looked carefully at the surrounding area, studying the nexus of tendrils. If something was trying to mess with the kernel, it still needed to be protected, and he had proven he couldn't cover the area that he needed to in order to keep the kernel safe in its chosen hiding place. He was particularly concerned, because even with the vividness of his magic sight turned up to 11 at the moment, he still couldn't see a trace of his wizardry. If the spell had failed there would be some sign. He still could've messed it up but it seemed equally possible that it had been deliberately dismantled. Which meant that someone had plans for the kernel and he was very lucky that they'd not gone through with them the second that they took down his spell.

At any rate, his best plan--short of sitting right there for however long and making sure they didn't come back (and that hardly seemed practical given how long this was taking)--was to set up the smaller scale protection spell that Danny had modified when making his protection/monitoring spell. He needed a smaller... there. There was a giant chord of tendrils going through a hollow tree. He touched it.

"Hi," the tree said.

"Hello there," Danny replied in the Speech. "I need a big favor." He explained what he wanted to do and why.

"I'd be honored," the tree replied.

Right, so the first part of the plan was to put the kernel in the hollow part of the tree. It was not exactly rocket science to move a kernel within its system but it wasn't exactly safe either. If you knew what you were doing--like Nita--it was easy to physically handle a kernel without altering it. If you didn't, it might pick up on a stray thought and think that it was an instruction. He set his spelling supplies under the hollow tree, then climbed back under the tree stump and tucked the kernel into his backpack. Gingerly, slowly, Danny started up the incline. He tested each step three times before putting all of his weight down. Still, he held his breath until he was clear of the tree stump.

He moved slowly and deliberately, eyes darting between the way in front of him and the path to the hollow tree. Once he arrived, he opened the backpack and gingerly placed the kernel in the knot in the living tree. "Does that feel ok?" he asked it.

"It tickles a little," the tree replied. "It should be fine."

Danny exhaled, finally, sitting at the base of the tree and leaning back. He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, and allowing his senses to return to normal. He leaned against the tree, just breathing for a few minutes. He still couldn't believe he'd just moved what was essentially the heart of everything, living or not, in Beacon Hills. It certainly didn't feel like the best of plans but the cool logic of the situation wasn't lost on him. Someone might've been after the kernel; someone who had no business messing with it. Danny couldn't just sit there and guard it and the wizardry he'd been using to guard the entire tree stump had failed him. He could, however, protect it in the hollow tree.

Danny took another deep breath, then started arranging his supplies, putting away the ones that wouldn't be needed for this spell. Then he arranged the rowan wand, cat whisker, rubber ball, origami swan, and catnip mouse at the base of the tree.

Danny pulled up the spell on his phone, reading in the Speech. "This is a protection spell. The object being protected is one of the local kernels that is hidden in this tree, with its permission." He laid a hand on the tree trunk. "The kernel needs to be protected from entropy in all its forms and agents." The knot in the tree glowed, the hole in it slowly being filled in by craggy bark. In a few minutes it would be impossible to tell that there was ever a hole there. "It protects and guards the growth of those around it, managing the complexity of its system. I call upon those around it to protect it, to return the care it has shown us." Danny swallowed, but the wood filling in the hole thickened. It was working. "We will continue to guard it as it has guarded us." Danny invoked a Wizard's Knot, which still seemed anti-climatic when compared to "so mote it be" or waving a wand.

Danny had spent weeks researching, and found no real logic to why such things were expected in literature and folklore, but not actual spell casting. While he'd been trying to learn that, however, he'd also up a couple neat tricks for spell casting. He twisted his wrist to open up his personal claudication--a tiny pocket of space that he could access from anywhere--and pulled out a string of a new monitoring spell. He'd been intending to use it if he'd gotten an opportunity to set it in Peter Hale's apartment complex. It was keyed to Hale, but since Danny was 99% sure that Hale was the one after the kernel, that would be okay.

Danny made a few corrections with the Rowan wand, changing the location of the spell and noticing one or two other things that could be better phrased (maybe his original spell had actually just come undone, but weirdly), and then activated the spell. It snapped into place with an audible click.

Finally, Danny pulled out three sugar cubes, a fish hook, and a balloon. He blew up the balloon and set it down next to the fish hook. He set a bead on top of the fish hook. Danny pulled another prefabricated spell from his claudication and wrote out the last two words. The spell glowed, and Danny rolled the balloon onto the fish hook. The balloon exploded with a loud pop that seemed to shake the foundations of the forrest. The bead glowed and the sugar disappeared. Which meant the spell had worked. Danny set the bead into his pocket, it was now anchored to this spot and would bring him here in a hurry by activating a transit spell.

Danny yawned. That was a lot of spells for a Saturday morning, presetting up of some of them not withstanding. He was going to go home and take a nap.

* * *

Danny had a strange feeling as he picked up his trumpet and walked away from Ethan at the start of the concert a few days later. They got into their positions all right, and at the start, everything seemed fine, but then the music got weirder. Danny knew he was hitting the wrong notes on his trumpet, but he wasn't really able to stop himself from hitting those notes. It got weirder; more discordant. His eyes darted around; there was no sign of Peter Hale. Ethan was frowning, his eyes searching the audience. Danny's eyes found his father's, which bored into him as if Danny were trying to fake a sick day from school.

Danny broke the eye contact in time to see McCall and Stilinski dash out of the auditorium. Danny wondered where they were going in such a hurry, but then he found himself playing something he didn't even remember learning. The pianist had it worse than him; she seemed to be flailing with terror in addition to playing. One of the piano strings spronged out of the back of the piano like real life had become a giant cartoon, and the pianist keeled over, her throat bleeding. Danny stared. He hadn't felt anything. He would know if this was wizardry, right?

Allison rushed onto the stage, Lahey on her heels. Danny took a deep breath, trying to collect himself. What could he do now? He pulled out his phone, instinctively booting the manual app and searching for a spell to scan for strange phenomena. 

He frowned at the full page of results, trying to figure out where to start. Perytons? Electromagnetic disturbances?

Someone grabbed his wrist.

"Danny what the hell are you doing?" His father wrapped the other hand around his shoulders and pulled him out of his seat. "We're going home. Right now."

Danny's mother grabbed Danny's trumpet from the floor.

"I need to find Ethan..." Danny looked around. He needed to know what Ethan knew. How did he know something strange might happen?

"We need to leave right now." His father leaned heavily on Danny's shoulders, steering him towards the door.

Danny pulled away. "I need to help." He pulled up the phone and started looking at the list again.

"Danny put that phone away or it's mine," his mother said.

Danny shoved it into is pocket. "I need to help," he repeated.

His father glared at him. "Are you a doctor now?"

"No."

"We're leaving." His father manhandled him out the doors of the classroom, the school, and into the car. Danny's mother on their heels. As his father pulled out of the parking lot, Danny fired off two texts: one to Ethan, one to Lydia. Letting them both know that he was safe and away from the school.

Lydia texted back "Okay" and Ethan "Glad you're safe." Danny couldn't help but wonder if there was some massive thing going on that everyone knew about but him.

When they got home, Danny went straight into the house and up the stairs, he flopped down on the bed, phone in hand. His mom came in.

"Mom, do you knock?" Danny asked.

"Give me the phone."

"But..."

"You were looking at it when you should have been running," his mom said. "You need a break. You can have it back in a couple days."

Danny stared. How could he explain that to surrender his phone was to take away any wizardry he didn't have memorized?

His mom used Danny's deer-in-headlights freeze to take the phone. "You can have it back in two days."

* * *

The next day of school was hell. Ethan was nowhere to be seen, and Danny must've been hallucinating from the lack of sleep--he'd had nothing but nightmares the previous day--because he thought he'd seen Lydia kissing Stilinski in Coach's office.

That would never happen. Never.

That night, he was doing his homework when his mom came in.

"We need to talk about the phone," she said.

"There's a good book on there I'm reading," Danny said. "I'm regretting not checking it out from the library." His parents would never take a book away from him.

"You're a little obsessed there, kiddo," his mom said. "You looked like you were afraid that something horrible would happen if I took it away."

Wizards didn't lie but he wasn't ready to explain this to his mom. Coming out to her once was hard enough, but twice?

"I guess I just needed a little perspective," Danny said.

His mom handed his phone back. "Try to keep that perspective there, kid, OK?"

"Thanks," Danny said.

Once his mom had left, Danny finished his homework, then flopped on the bed, intent on looking up mysterious behavior of piano wire.

* * *

Danny laughed at Ethan from the goal. "I thought you said you played LaCrosse before."

"I have," Ethan said defensively.

"Then why are you shooting flat like that?" Danny asked, coming out of the goal. "You need to shoot overhand, untuck your elbow." He bopped Ethan's elbow the way Coach Mathis had in Junior High when they took a bad shot.

Ethan reached out. "Oh yeah?" He pulled Danny close and then they were on the ground, kissing.

Danny rolled to get on top and fell, waking up just in time to push his arms out and stop himself from falling out of bed. What? The monitoring spell! He pulled the travel bead from his claudication and triggered it.

Danny winced at the crack of displaced air that accompanied his arrival in a copse of trees just outside of the clearing. He squinted in the darkness. The eclipse might have been over, but the moonlight was barely enough to see by. What, or who had tripped his detection spell? Inwardly, he cursed himself for having never learned the real life equivalent of "Lumos." A figure that he assumed was Peter Hale was bent over a lumpy, writhing body. Danny took a stop closer, focusing and the body's face resolved into Ms. Blake. She lay at the foot of the tree stump; dark liquid that he strongly suspected was blood seeping from her neck.

"I am the Alpha!" Peter roared.

The what?

"I have always been the Alpha!"

Danny wanted to look in his phone. What the heck was the Alpha? Why was that important? What could an Alpha possibly be that it would be worth risking the lives of the entire city? Of course, that could be the Lone One's entire plan.

Peter turned, his eyes glowing an unnatural blue. And... was that fur on his face? "What..."

Danny looked him in the eye, chin up, shoulders square, sure his hands were shaking. "Fairest and fallen, greetings and defiance."

Hale laughed. Actually laughed. "You foolish boy. Do you really think that a creature such as myself would allow that thing to possess me? We have a deal. Now why don't you be a good little wizard and run along."

With that, Hale turned his back on Danny and started digging--the hollow should have been there. Had something caused it to finally collapse? Hale broke through, disappearing within. It was only then that Danny noticed a lot of holes in the ground surrounding the tree stump. It was as if the Earth had caved in, filling in the hollow under the tree stump.

Danny checked the protection around the hollow tree where the kernel was hidden: the spell was strong and undisturbed. "I kept it safe," the tree told him.

"Thank you."

Danny stepped away, picking a nearby tree so he wouldn't telegraph where the kernel actually was, and leaned against it. He needed a plan, but he still wasn't sure what he was up against. Apparently Hale was neither possessed by the Lone Power nor the Lone Power incarnate. He had been either coerced or persuaded to do its bidding. Even more strangely, he had described himself as a creature. Maybe Danny _had_ seen his eyes flash. He slid out his phone, intent on checking to see if perytons could revert back to people, but he heard Hale crashing back up from the hollow and shoved the phone back in his pocket.

"Where is my kernel, you stupid boy," Hale said, stalking towards him.

"It's not your kernel," Danny replied, evenly. The first rule of dealing with wild creatures: show no fear.

"Listen you little shit, if I don't get that kernel in the next fifteen minutes that fairest and fallen you're so eager to defy is going to be extremely pissed off."

"Greetings and defiance," Danny replied, pasting what he hoped was a shit eating grin on his face. So Hale was on a deadline. Good. That meant that all Danny had to do was stall.

"Listen kid..." Hale started.

"You know if I'd told Ms. Blake over there that I'd had a problem with a paper fifteen minutes before it was due, she'd have told me I shouldn't have left it so long," Danny said. "Is that why you slashed her throat like that? Was she not giving you an extension?" His stomach wrenched a little bit to be talking about Ms. Blake like that, but what choice did he have? Maybe he could make her death mean something.

Peter grabbed his ear. "This is life and death you little snot."

"All the more reason to start early," Danny ground out. Sometimes he wished he hadn't dropped karate in favor of LaCrosse, but he remembered a little. He drove his elbow into Peter's knee.

Peter snorted. "Nice try. Doesn't hurt." He still let go of Danny's ear.

"She wasn't a wizard," Danny said. "Why did you kill her?"

Peter just looked at him. "Tell me where the kernel is, and I'll explain everything."

"No chance," Danny replied. He couldn't let this man get his hands on that kernel. The lives of everyone in Beacon Hills depended on that.

Peter grabbed him again, shoving Danny's back against a tree. Not the one with the kernel, thankfully, just a tree. Danny was doing his best to continue to meet Hale's eyes, and not to look at where the kernel was.

"Where's the kernel, boy?"

"Not telling," Danny said. "Why do you want it anyway?"

"I've seen Bond movies, kid, I'm not going to tell you my entire plan just so you can thwart it."

"We've wasted a few minutes already; what happens if you miss your deadline?"

Hale just glared at him. Danny squirmed. There was something familiar about that face, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Where's the kernel?" Hale asked, his fingernails elongating into claws. "I'm not going to ask nicely again. You want to join your teacher?"

"You're not going to kill me," Danny said, even as he realized it. "You don't have enough time to find it on your own and I'm the only who knows where it is." Danny had a funny feeling Hale might be about to make his next few minutes very unpleasant. He didn't think that Ordeals were supposed to mean physical pain.

Of course, a lot of things about this Ordeal were exceptional, so...

"Plenty of ways to hurt you that aren't lethal, kid," Hale said. He started shoving one of his claws into Danny's arm.

"Ow."

"Tell me and it'll stop."

"If I tell you, you could hurt everyone in this town I care about with that kernel. Not on my watch." Danny was sure his voice was strained.

"You're telling me it doesn't hurt."

"It's only a flesh wound," Danny said. His British accent was shit, but that was OK.

"Liar."

"Quoting Monty Python isn't lying, it's deflecting."

"It's stalling."

"Well, I'm not the one on a clock, am I?" Danny asked.

Was this his job? Really. To snark at some half man half... something else. The light was low, but he could've sworn that Hale had _fangs_. It was a far cry from Nita and Kit having to read from the Bright Book.

Of course, they'd been eleven, he was sixteen. The older you were when you were offered the Art, the less raw power you had to draw on. Hagrid had told Danny that he was the answer to this problem. This problem was, for whatever reason, that the Beacon Hills kernel was being threatened by Peter Hale.

"I'm not going to hurt the whole town you know," Hale said. "My niece and nephew are here. Do you think I'd hurt them when I've lost the rest of my family? Tell you what, tell me where the kernel is and I'll make sure the people you care about don't get hurt either."

"What? That's supposed to make it better? How many people have to die? Should it be any better if it's not the ones I know? You're pathetic."

"Kid, you..."

"No. Seriously. You think the Lone Power is going to spare Derek and Cora-or is it Laura who survived the fire? Because all the reports show Laura but Cora goes to school with me."

Hale blanched, color draining from his face.

"Hit a nerve, have I? How about this then: whatever it's planning, even if it gave Derek and Cora a free pass, you can't trust it. It lies. That's lesson one. The Lone Power is the father of lies. This isn't a contract you can negotiate like with Crowley on Supernatural, it's real life, and the bad guys lie," Danny said. "Which is the other reason I won't help you: I don't trust you to protect anyone. My best bet is to stop you from doing whatever you're going to do."

"The bulk of it is too late anyway," Hale said. "Your teacher made sure of that. She made a blood sacrifice in the Nematon during the Lunar Eclipse, which will darken the kernel and the protections surrounding it so that the Lone Power..."

Danny laughed. "During the lunar eclipse? The one a few hours ago?"

"What?"

"I moved the kernel _days_ ago. You've already lost!"

"You had one job, Hale," roared a new voice. "One job, you didn't do it, and the entire plan went up in smoke. The new Alpha didn't even kill anyone."

Hale tensed, turning to face a man with blond hair and sharply focused blue eyes. Danny could've sworn that Hale's eyes glowed blue.

The man's face started to contort, wrinkling. It was as if... it was like the forehead vampire make-up on Buffy had been moved to his whole face. Danny suspected this, not Hale, was the manifestation of the Lone Power. Except this was Hale's fight.

Danny reached into his claudication as Hale turned his back on him. The plan was ruined, and the town was safe. Which meant that Danny's next job was to get himself safe. He had another transit spell he'd stored for emergencies. One that would take him straight home. He activated it.

Back in his room, Danny flopped down on his bed, spent. There had been more wits than wizardry involved, but he'd thwarted the Lone Power's plan--by moving the kernel. He hadn't even needed to show up, although he suspected that if Peter had found the kernel (and he might have without Danny to keep him busy) something might have happened. He pulled out his phone and opened the manual, wondering if he needed to do something else.

He found a text message from Tom. "Just got a text telling me you passed your Ordeal. The précis is vague on some points, swing by tomorrow after school to tell me about it?"

Danny blinked. There was a précis and the seniors didn't understand it? How was he supposed to?

* * *

"I've never heard of an agent of the Lone Power looking like that," Tom said when Danny described the second comer to him the next afternoon. "Of course, I'd never heard of the Avenger hiding in a macaw, and that's exactly what we had happen to us."

Danny raised an eyebrow.

"It's a long story," Tom said.

"And Hale's glowing eyes?"

"I don't know," Tom said.

"There's a lot of things you don't know," Danny said. "How am I ever going to learn everything if a Senior doesn't even know?"

"You won't," Tom said. "Ordeals are twofold: You're supposed to solve a problem and learn something from the experience. What have you learned?"

Danny thought for a few minutes. "That I can still help people without knowing _everything_. I had no idea what the plan was or the endgame, but I managed to save Beacon Hills just by better protecting the kernel. Then why didn't my Ordeal end then?"

"Because you still had to face the agents of the Lone Power," Tom said. "They always offer you a choice. You made the right one. Also, there was something you needed to learn, from the concert."

"That death was really strange," Danny said. "There are a lot of strange things going on, and I don't know about all of them. Like what Ms. Blake had to do with anything."

"That wasn't your problem to solve," Tom said.

"But there weren't other wizards working..."

"Not all who serve the Powers are wizards," Tom said. "You may learn more about them, you may not. For now, your job is to keep your eyes and ears open and so you can serve the Powers in the best way you can."

"Does that mean spying on my boyfriend?" Danny asked. "I still don't know why he told me to find him if he spotted anything strange."

"Just because he unsettles animals and knows strange things are going on doesn't make him evil," Tom said. "Nor does it make him good. You'll have to use your best judgment."

"I"m going to have to come out to my parents again, aren't I?" Danny asked. "As a wizard this time."

"It's up to you," Tom said. "Nita might be able to advise you about that. I have to admit to never telling mine that I'm a wizard, and they're wild about my boyfriend."

Danny blinked. Oh. No wonder Tom had been amazingly blasé about the whole boyfriend thing.

"Any other questions?"

"The Bright One's avatar in a Macaw?" Danny asked.

Tom raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, just because I can't know everything doesn't mean I don't want to learn as much as I can," Danny said. "My cat's a wizard; I just want to be prepared."

"More tea first," Tom said decisively, and got up to boil more water.

The End


End file.
